It was Just Fate
by GilraenTook
Summary: In an AU where soul mates receive the marks their other half do, what will happen when Harry finds out that his rival, Draco Malfoy has not only been abused, but is also destined to be his other half? Slight AU, as it ignores some canon. Based off of a (credited) tumblr post. Rated M for brief adult discussions, violence.


sirius-orion-lupindottumblrdotcom/post/14266051756/soulmate-au-where-their

(No links. Right, forgot about that. Just add in the at the front, and replace the two "dots" with periods. No world-wide-web designation needed.)

I read this post, and fell in love with it. But I also felt like it needed more. It felt cheap, to me, to have it reduced to just a few taglines. When I started to write this one, I figured I'd elaborate on the original post, and leave it at that, but then I felt like it needed to go on afterwards. Since it is AU, since some of the things I wrote may not make sense since I had to cut a bit to make some things fit or to follow the original post (ie: how the dementor attack did not happen in this story), and since I did technically plagiarise someone else's work by adding on and turning it into a story, I do ask that anyone who reads this read the original tumblr post first.

Also, I started out with two beta readers, one helped me with plot points, but the one who was helping me with grammar dropped out of it halfway through because life happened. No hard feelings here! I did write some of this in more of a literary-fiction sort of way, instead of a text-book sort of way, though, and so if the style switches partway through, that is the explanation. Also, if I made a glaring mistake (say I wrote "their going to school" instead of "they're") please don't hesitate to send me a message. I'm not on much, but if I see something like that, I will most definitely go back in and fix it. I read over it a few times myself, but there are times when you don't catch mistakes in your own works.

Anyway! On with the story:

It was turning out to be yet another long summer for Harry Potter. He was alone in his room, as always, and was craving his friends. At first, he had been content to lie in his room and mourn the loss of his school mate. He had gone through stages of self-loathing, feeling he had directly caused Cedric's death and, by proxy, the agony that Cedric's family was feeling. He had gone through stages of enragement, even once daring to cast a small privacy charm, one that, thankfully, went unnoticed by the ministry, so he could scream and cry out his frustration at not being just a smidgen quicker while faced with the death eaters who had killed Cedric. He had gone through stages of immense grief, feeling like he should have gotten to know his rival better so he could properly mourn him. Cedric was a great guy, after all. Hadn't he given Harry the answer to the riddle that was contained in the golden egg? Told his father that he hadn't beaten Harry fairly, since Harry had fallen from his broom in a dementor attack?

The Dursleys were treating him as poorly as they always had and, after the harrowing experiences of the year before, he was desperate. He was not allowed to send Hedwig out with messages. His friends had not been by Privet Drive at all, nor had they found a way to sneak him any sort of communication. Even the messages he had somehow managed to get out to Dumbledore, asking when he would be able to leave, had gone without response. The summer was just past halfway over, and Harry was worried that he would miss being able to shop for supplies for his return to Hogwarts, if he was even going to be allowed to go back. After the long summer of no contact, he was beginning to become afraid he had been expelled, and was to never be heard from again.

He laid down on his bed, grabbing a pillow, and coming to the conclusion yet again that his friends had left him. He pulled the pillow up so that he could twist it above his head, then felt the sensations he had been feeling off and on all summer again. It was as if someone was beating him. Having grown up with his aunt and uncle, he was no stranger to neglect, but abuse was a new one. He had been beaten on by Dudley, sure, but Dudley had not been a boxer at that time, so his punches were mostly ineffective.

He lapsed, for a few minutes, back into a state of misery when the sensations did not return immediately. All his life, the Dursleys had treated him barely better than a house elf because he was a "freak," and yet, how could he not feel that he was one after the previous year? He had always struggled while living there. As a baby, he knew he had been loved by his parents, then when they were murdered, he became the freak who lived. They locked him away in a cupboard, they denied him decent meals. The only time he was fed anything resembling something proper was when he was at school. The lunches that he had been sent to school with were not the best he had ever tasted, but they were nutritious enough. The Dursleys always claimed he was picky, and that anything else would be wasted on him. At his aunt and uncle's, he was lucky to get a vitamin and a half portion of whatever the rest of the family were eating, even when he cooked it himself.

He _must_ have been a freak, he reasoned with himself, for no one noticed that no matter what he did, he was simply treated worse for it. Whilst Harry knew, for example, that he would always be willing to help with the housework, his uncle instead demanded compliance from him, and then strutted around the house when Harry did what was asked of him, mostly so he would not end up being punished even _more_ for his freakishness. While Harry pulled weeds, cleaned every speck of dust from the house, including the snot or mud Dudley wiped across areas he had just cleaned, while he cooked every meal that was eaten at Privet Drive by the whole family, he got to watch his cousin sit around and laugh at him. He thought it to be quite unfair while growing up. Yes, his parents had died, and yes he had been left with people who hated him, but _why_ were they so hostile? He had been a baby when he was dropped on their doorstep. Aside from the magic, they could have raised him any way they wished. They could have spoiled him just as much they did his cousin, leaving him with the same personality. Instead, they punished him for whatever problems his aunt had had with her sister when they themselves were children. They seemed determined to keep his life from him in any way that they could.

Then came his eleventh birthday. Though they still tried to keep his life from him, Hagrid had come in on orders from the school and told him what he had been missing, and what to expect from then on. Oh, how he had thought things would get better when he arrived at Hogwarts, Hagrid had told him wondrous things, from the magic he would be taught to use, to how most of the wizarding world nearly worshipped him (Harry had thought, at that, that he would simply like to be respected, thank you VERY much.) to the meals which were apparently never ending, to how you could even find out who you were destined to marry without lifting a finger! Harry heard, on that first Diagon Alley trip, how young witches and wizards were married off at a young age centuries before. When he gasped, Hagrid asked if he had ever had unexplained bruises on his knees as a kid. When Harry nodded, he grinned back. Wizards and witches, seemingly only the truly powerful in modern times, sadly, he said, were connected through magical bonds to their soul mates. They were not required to marry them today, of course, and many did not, but they knew who they were for sure. The marks put onto the skin of a person's soul mate would appear on their skin as well. If he hadn't had weird writing on his hands or arms as a kid, he was lucky. Many strong muggle-raised witches or wizards would routinely get into trouble for writing on themselves, when it was a bored soul mate in a lesson. Bruises would always appear, and in this new world with muggle technology, there had even been cases of wizards getting matching tattoos and only paying for one of them!

"So if I find someone else with a lightning bolt on their forehead, I should become friends with them?" A shy eleven-year old Harry had asked. Hagrid laughed as he replied that curse scars and serious injuries like an auror being attacked by a wild animal did not ever seem to transfer over, but that pretty close to anything else would.

When he had first walked down Diagon Alley, Harry had been amazed. Then came the thrill that all of the people he had met, at least up until he got to Hogwarts itself, had known him had given him some manner of respect! All of the adults from his muggle schools had heard that he was a troublemaker before he set foot into their classrooms. The magic he had seen before that first day in the world he had been born to be a part of thrilled him. When he got to the school itself, he had been thrilled to see how much food he would be allowed to eat. Truly there were no limits? And surely some professor would eventually see how much he was struggling, and be able to get him out of his aunt and uncle's house!

Then came Professor Snape, who seemed to have a problem with him, or the spoiled Draco Malfoy who encouraged all of his friends to treat Harry with disrespect because he did not want to associate with a stuck-up prat. Or the students his second year who accused him of being heir to Slytherin (and oh, how he was still glad he had asked the Sorting Hat to place him anywhere _but_ Slytherin!) and turned on him. It even went as far as most of the school, including his best mate at one point, hating him the year before for having been put in the Triwizard Tournament against his will. Then there were also the teachers who never saw him gaining and losing weight on an even greater scale than before, or the fact that not even Madame Pomfrey seemed to notice how frail he truly was any of the times he had been under her care. Of course _now,_ it seemed, the entire wizarding world had turned against him. He had caused another window incident, this time with boards, when the howlers started to arrive early that summer saying how he was a horrible prankster, and a looney for claiming that He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named was back, or implying that he had been the cause of the young Mr. Diggory's death. The fame must have been going to his head to think that he could get away with such nonsensical lies, and blatant attention seeking lies they were! Then. . . silence. A week or two after the summer had started, all communication from the outside world ceased. No howlers, no owls, no floo or even telephone calls, no Weasleys stopping by to see how he was holding up. . . . Nothing.

Harry was so caught up in his misery that when he felt a sharp pain across his back he had to stuff a pillow he had been gripping into his mouth to avoid crying out. He sat up and tried to rub the sore spot, but it stung more when he did. A few seconds after the sharp pain, just enough time to get his head back on, he felt it again. Then again, and again, and again. He bit down on his pillow again, and dealt with the sharp pains, then a feeling of hands gripping his arms the way Vernon would when he was truly enraged, though the hands were smaller. After a few seconds, he got a sensation of rug burn in his hands and lower legs, then the sharp pains started again. When a few more minutes had past, with involuntary tears leaking from his eyes at the pain, Harry felt a duller pain in his side, as if he had been kicked while on the floor, and then nothing. When he felt able to sit up again, he felt a cool sensation across his back, as if a healing spell or ointment was being applied to it. He rubbed one of the sore spots as he felt it, and felt a large welt vanish. He turned his head and looked at his arm to see a handmark, not unlike the ones his uncle had often given him. He blinked at it a few times, not comprehending what he was seeing. The mark was too small to be his uncle's, and the closest he had come to human interaction in weeks was when his uncle had shoved food through the flap in his door. Or when Dudley had come by to mock him for crying Cedric's name in his sleep, and ask if Cedric was his boyfriend. The marks were small, and after a few more moments, and another cool sensation on his skin, they too vanished.

While he puzzled over it, the sound of his cousin taunting him from the door, asking if he was on his knees for his imaginary lover, and the wish that he could beat him up like he used to made something in his brain click. The marks were gone. Someone was healing them. Instead of just marks that came and went this time, he was seeing definite hand shapes. Hand shapes like what he had gotten when his uncle was at his worst. Someone was doing this to someone else, and not just anyone else, but his soul mate! Harry suddenly became livid. He had been feeling sensations of being hit all summer long, and had just not known what was happening. Someone was beating his soul mate, and he could do _nothing_ to prevent it. He didn't even know who this person was! .

Harry immediately focussed on the problem at hand. With his saving people thing fully activated, he could stave off the personal crises that he was having. He tried to figure it out, from that point on, tried to figure out who it could be, and what had changed. The only thing he could think of was that Voldemort was back. _Oh_ , he thought, _if only I could speak with Hermione right about now! She'd be able to puzzle this out, I know she would!_ The thought of who it may be concerned him greatly. He knew it was none of the Gryffindors who he was on good terms with. As far as Harry knew, none of their parents would stoop so low as to beat them. Whoever it was had access to healing salves, at least, indicating pureblood status. He assumed that if a muggleborn was being beaten, they would not be allowed to have access to healing salves. He thought about half-bloods, briefly, but thought that even they would have a hard time getting to a wizarding area, since all of the ones who he knew lived near muggles. One day, after a vision left him gasping for air, the beatings started up again, and he nearly began to cry. He had it. He had it, and Hermione hadn't been there to help him _or_ to be proud of him for figuring it out. Whoever his soul mate was, his likely future in-laws were marked. What else could cause such a reaction? And after Voldemort had cruciod half of his followers, all in masks, of course, Harry thought bitterly, it made sense that the beating he had received through his soul mate was not as bad as it normally was. The only people who were being tortured in the vision were death eaters, and He had been upset that a few of the masked people in the crowd had children who were refusing to accept his mark.

Desperate to let his soul mate know that it was not as bad as it seemed, he crawled over to the meager collection of school supplies that he had. He grabbed a pen's ink stick, something he'd salvaged when Dudley had broken its plastic cover while having a temper tantrum, and wrote "I'm sorry. Everything's going to be okay" in a shaky hand. He knew that some people had communicated like that before, mostly in times of need, but he still hoped that he was not being foolish, and that his message would be received. Even so, he jumped when neat letters formed on his arm, just below the words he had written. They simply said "thank you."

While it was not much, at least Harry knew that he was helping his soul mate. He only hoped that it gave some of his strength as well, and did not simply make someone else feel like they were being patted on the head and told it would work itself out, like he had felt so many times while talking to Dumbledore. Any time the bruises would appear, he continued to write little messages of encouragement. "It'll get better," or "I'm here for you." He continued to receive responses, never lengthy ones, thanking him.

Now, though, he wondered who his mysterious junior death eater in training was even more. He knew he had seen the writing at some point, though he could not tell whose it was. He wondered, furiously, if they could recognise his as well, but the idea was dashed one day when he finally noticed just how bad his normal scrawl had gotten while he was shaking from a nasty lashing. _Well this is no good,_ he told himself. _If I can barely tell it is my own writing, how could anyone else tell who I am?_

"Who are you?" he wrote one afternoon, after yet another beating had left him in tears on his bedroom floor. "Please, I want to help!" That was the day he became truly frantic. His soul mate never responded, not that day, not any of the other days that Harry ended up with bruises lining his body, only to have them healed a few minutes later. He did not even know at that point if his soul mate was even reading them any longer. Before, at least, he felt a connection. A sense that his soul mate was grateful. A sense that his care was appreciated, but now he was not even getting that. Yet again, he was completely alone.

Towards the end of the summer,it seemed his soul mate's supply of healing salve started to dwindle. It seemed that the bruises were lasting longer, and that they were not being healed as thoroughly. When he was finally able to head to the Burrow for the last two weeks, he took to wearing sleeves all the time just to avoid the looks he knew he would have been getting otherwise. As much as he wanted, no _needed_ someone to confide in, he also was unsure if he could trust any of his friends with such news, and he was afraid that if he told Mrs. Weasley that he would be adding more stress to her than she needed.

The last set of bruises he received, thankfully while the rest of the family was not around to hear or see him writhing in agony was barely healed at all. The ones on his back were, but the ones on his arm were ignored completely.

The day that they all left for King's Cross, he was alert and on the lookout. He had to find the person he was intended to be with, he just _had_ to! He watched the crowd as he passed, trying to find anyone who, like him, was keeping their arms hidden. Unfortunately, it seemed, half of the other students were wearing long sleeves.

"Ron, Hermione," he said, tugging their sleeves and causing them to slow so that they were all walking a few paces away from the other Weasleys. "Help me, would you?"

"You okay, mate? You've been acting strange the couple weeks you've been with us." Ron said.

"Harry," Hermione continued, "if you needed to talk to someone about what happened at the end of last year, you could have come to me. Or to Mrs. Weasley, I'm sure she would have helped!"

"No, guys, it's not that. I just get the feeling something is wrong. Help me watch for anyone who isn't acting normal?"

Ron and Hermione shared a look, but they both nodded to Harry and started to scan the platform as students started to get onto the train. Harry continued to scan the crowd, nearly passing by Malfoy, who was nodding at his father, when he noticed a familiar gesture, one he had been practicing half of the summer, and perfecting while staying at the Burrow. Had Malfoy just tugged his sleeve down? As if he was hiding the bruises that he was afraid someone else would notice?

Harry felt as if his heart stopped beating for a moment or two, and then he moved a bit to see better. Malfoy was keeping his eyes low. His body language, otherwise, looked pompous as ever, but after spending the better part of four years watching him, he could see the way that Malfoy's hair was not perfectly in place, and that his shoulders were hunched just slightly, could see the rigidity of his spine, the same one he had been carrying for weeks now, as if he was afraid that at any moment another lash would come.

Suddenly, as if he did not get the answer that he was intending to hear, Lucius's hand darted out and grabbed his son's wrist, while his other hand, deceptively soft, Harry could feel the feather light touch, though it was cold and it almost gave Harry the feeling of slime oozing across his skin, touched Draco's chin as he encouraged his son to bring his eyes up. Harry could not help but to drag his eyes away from the terror that he was sure only he could see in Draco Malfoy's eyes to look at Lucius's face instead. He saw cold fury and disgust instead of the fatherly pride that had always been so perfectly arranged there. Lucius's grip on his son's wrist grew firmer, and Harry gasped at the same moment that Malfoy did. He could not hear what was being said, but he could clearly see Lucius flip his cane so that he was holding the middle of it, and felt it as it jabbed into Draco's left arm. His heart sank. Was his soul mate already marked, or was his father just telling him that he would be soon? Would a dark mark transfer, or would it count as the curse scar he thought of them as and remain hidden away from him?

It was that moment that three things truly hit him. One, his soul mate was _Draco Malfoy._ The same Draco Malfoy, in fact, who had hated him since their first year, from the moment he had chosen to accept the friendship of the red-headed boy who he met on the train who did not remind him of his cousin. Two, he was the same Draco Malfoy who had on multiple occasions, when provoked, or simply bested at wordplay, uttered ' _my father will hear about this!'_ His _soul mate_ who uttered those words on a regular basis, was living in constant fear of that father figure that he always pretended to be so proud of. How could he do such a thing? Was it the same fear that Harry himself felt, that if he voiced what was happening to him that it would get worse? Or was he hoping that by telling his father what was going on that he could somehow transfer some of that abuse onto someone else? Or at least spare himself a little bit of it for a few moments. Three, he realised that no matter what it took, or who he had to cross, he _would_ be putting a stop to this. Malfoy was his soul mate. No one would hurt his soul mate, especially not a low-life like Lucius Malfoy.

Professor McGonagall asked to speak with Harry as soon as the feast was over. Harry thought it was dumb luck that she approached him and asked him to walk to her office when she did. He was starting to worry about which professor he should speak to about what he had seen at the station, and figuring out a way to do so without letting Ron and Hermione hear. He knew he would have to share the information with them at some point, but it was still too new to him to, and so he was still unsure how he felt about the whole situation. On one hand, he was thrilled to know who his soul mate was. He figured it would be impossible to not be happy to know. On the other? Harry had the feeling it would be hard to get to speak with Malfoy in a civilised manner. They _had_ spent the past four years at each other's throats most of the time.

Professor McGonagall opened the door they had just arrived at and invited Harry inside. It turned out that she wished to warn him about the new professor, and to tell him, with a look that implied that she knew he would not be, to be careful around her. She told him that at the very least she worked for Minister Fudge, who was trying to not allow the truth of what had happened at the end of the previous school year get out. She told him that Dumbledore had been "sparing" him any contact over the summer so he would not see the way that Fudge was stirring the fires against him. At least, Harry thought ruefully, that was why Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had been so cautious and overprotective with him in his most recent stay with them.

"I'll be careful, professor," he promised, "but may I ask you for a favour?"

"What is it, Harry?" She asked.

"Malfoy is being abused by his father. . . ." He paused to collect his thoughts.

"How, exactly, did you come to that conclusion, Mr. Potter? I cannot imagine him speaking with you about the circumstances of his personal life, given your proclivity towards antagonism where the other is concerned."

In response, Harry rolled up his sleeve to show the angry marks, including the new one on the inside of his arm where Lucius had stabbed his son with his cane earlier. His professor gasped. "I know you can't just approach him, but can you at least watch him or something? Please?"

While it was completely out of character for her, his professor hugged him, and promised Harry she would do everything in her power as Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts to see to it that the matter was handled in a way that would leave his soul mate safe.

The next day at breakfast, just after Umbridge left, Dumbledore asked the students to line up by year. They all filed over to the room that Harry dreaded, off to the side of the great hall. The same room he had gone to after the goblet of fire had selected him for the tournament that would shape his year, the death of a fellow student, and potentially the future of the wizarding world.

The younger students went in first, and were all silent as they left, even when prodded or threatened by older students who wanted to know what was happening before they went in. After only a few minutes, Harry's class was invited into the room to stand with the headmaster and the four heads of house.

"It has been brought to my attention," started Dumbledore, "that we may have a problem. All of you know what was reported at the conclusion of the tournament last year. . ."

"Yeah, Scarhead over there went nuts, killed someone and blamed it on a dead guy," said a sneering Malfoy. His friends laughed while Harry and Hermione held Ron back so he would not jump across the magically enlarged room after him.

Harry looked up briefly and caught Professor Snape's eye. His professor glared at him, but was he imagining the touch of concern he saw hidden there?

"Mr. Malfoy, I would appreciate it if you would not interrupt me," Professor Dumbledore admonished. Malfoy, predictably, rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, leaning back onto the stone wall behind him with a sneer.

"We need each of you to put your left arm forward and roll up your sleeve," said Professor McGonagall after a moment.

"What?" came a chorus of replies from around the room.

"You can't do that!" snarled Daphne Greengrass. "We won't be degraded like this."

"Miss Greengrass, it will only take a moment of your time, then you can leave to go to your classes," said Professor Snape. "I am not thrilled about this either, but you have no choice if you wish to remain here for the school year."

Harry watched as Malfoy tugged his sleeve down again, gulping. He hoped he was not wrong, and yet he knew that his own bruises had healed the night before, so Malfoy had at least gotten more salve for them. "My father will hear about this," he grumbled. "You can't be so arrogant as to expect us to not say anything about it?"

Harry secretly hoped that his father _would_ be hearing about it. If his father knew they would be checking for marks, he could not force his son to be marked before he was old enough to graduate. Not, at least, without transferring him far away. If the beatings were because Malfoy was refusing to be marked, however, marking him meant he would have to stay close to his son to ensure his continued good behaviour. He couldn't do that if he transferred him to Durmstrang and still had his white-mask job on the side, could he?

A Hufflepuff who Harry did not know called out "what about the professors? They're the only ones who would have been alive when He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named was _actually_ around, though Potter seems to think he's his answer to everything, so they're the ones that would be marked if any of us are." The boy shot a look in Professor Snape's direction, though the professor remained stoic as ever.

"If you are referring to me, Mr. Hopkins, I can assure you that all of us on staff were checked in private and were found to not be working for anyone other than the headmaster."

"But we're not _in_ private, are we?" asked someone else.

"Oh, give it up. Here." Said Dean, walking forward while rolling up his sleeve. "Anyone else, or are you all too scared?"

"Typical Gryffindor," replied Malfoy. "Always thinking about how cowardly everyone else is."

"Well, let's have it then, Malfoy," Ron spat, holding out his arm, as Hermione, Harry and the rest of the Gryffindors followed. A few of the Ravenclaw students were quick to join in, followed by the Hufflepuffs, and finally, reluctantly, the Slytherins. Harry held his breath as he watched Malfoy roll up his sleeve, and gasped as he nearly fell over in shock looking at the arm that was being bared in front of him as a few of his fellow students shrieked in alarm. His eyes widened, but he realised all he could see was pale flesh. He let out the air from his gasp in a quick sigh as he looked for the source of the distraction. Tracey Davis, a Slytherin girl, was backing up slowly. Her eyes were wide, and a skull with a snake was clearly visible on the inside of her forearm through her ripped sleeve.

The student next to her, someone whose face Harry did not even notice in the disturbance was gaping at the mark along with everyone else. "I thought she was just being a typical Slytherin and not going up out of pride," she said.

"I didn't have a choice. They made me!" Tracey said.

"Miss Davis, you will come with me now," said her head of house, disgust clearly lacing his voice.

"No, no you can't do this. I didn't do anything wrong!"

"That is enough, Miss Davis," interjected Dumbledore, "We will stun you to remove you if you do not go with your head of house now."

She grabbed her wand and was stunned by all five of the professors in the room before she could lift it to casting height. As she was carried out of the room, Parkinson fell sideways onto Draco. "How _could_ she? She said she'd refuse, like I did."

"Later, please," was all Draco could say in return. Harry thought he sounded like he was nearly begging.

"But she said she wouldn't! Do you know what it takes to get one of those?" she shrieked.

"Please, Miss Parkinson, this is not really an appropriate topic to be discussing here. I wish you would refrain from it at all at school, but if you must speak of it, please do so in your common room when no younger students are around," Professor Sprout cut in.

Parkinson's first instinct was to sneer, but after a jerk that looked suspiciously like she was jabbed by an elbow, she nodded. "Thank you, professor," she muttered.

When all of the students in their year had gone, they walked out quietly. The professors warned them not to tell anyone what they had been asked in the room. It was a mostly unneeded warning, though. After seeing Tracey's mark before she was stunned, they were all reluctant to mention what they had witnessed to anyone else.

The students went to their classes, and they all tried to forget the student who they knew would be absent from the great hall the next time they were in it.

For the first couple days they were back, Umbridge threw a fit over the missing students, and forced checks for dark marks. She also decided to cause a stir at the ministry, nearly gaining the ability for the marked students to come back. It was only through the effort of a few of the parents of unmarked students causing a fuss that any resolution that did not allow death eaters in the castle occurred. The fuss caused the issue to be put to a vote. The vast majority of those voting decided that even though the marks the students had were surely fakes, that they did not want those children in Hogwarts.

Harry was astounded by the students who had gone missing. He had been told there was never a witch or wizard who was bad outside of Slytherin before he came to Hogwarts. From his unfortunate experience of meeting Peter Pettigrew, he knew that to be false. Still, however, the students who were missing ranged from Tracey at the youngest, to just over three quarters of the seventh year Slytherins. The rest of the population of missing students fell between the other sixth and seventh years, with the only house not having been effected by the purge, as the students were calling it, being Hufflepuff. This led to the Hufflepuffs strutting around, and feigning purity, and many a comment about puffed up 'puffs.

For the first half of the school year, Harry led a double life. On one side, he struggled to keep his interactions with Ron and Hermione normal. Hermione had nearly caught on to him at the start of the year. Harry became distracted watching Malfoy a few times. Harry told her that he had gotten lost daydreaming. Malfoy _was_ sitting directly in front of him those few times, after all. After that, he started taking quicker glances at Malfoy, or forgetting things on purpose so he could walk back the way they had come and watch the way Malfoy was acting to try to get a clue of what he actually felt towards the other wizard. Other times, he would sneak off when Ron and Hermione were busy and use his cloak to spy on him. In the months between the ride back to Hogwarts and the holidays, Harry had caught Malfoy being nice to another student in his house a dozen times, being rude to or bossing another student in his house around at least as often, and protecting a student from his house at least twice that number of times. Then there was the way he treated the students from the other houses. Harry was surprised to see that Malfoy actually grinned appreciatively a few times when Fred and George set off a particularly good prank. He also seemed to be on speaking terms with a couple of Ravenclaws when he thought no one was looking. The whole mess was confusing. Harry knew that he could be on great terms, potentially even falling for, the Malfoy he saw enjoying life with his friends. That smile that he seemed to reserve for them was intoxicating. If he kept being a jerk to Harry's friends, though? Harry decided somewhere along the line that if he was to pursue a relationship of any kind with him, being nice to Ron and Hermione was something that had to be agreed on. He would just have to work on how to tell Ron and Hermione that he was going to attempt to become involved with Malfoy before he worked on how to tell Malfoy that he wished to.

One day, a few weeks before the holidays started, Harry, Ron and Hermione were left alone in the Room of Requirement after a DA meeting. "Have you guys noticed anything strange that doesn't relate to Umbridge this year?" Hermione asked.

"Like what?" replied Harry and Ron, almost at the same time.

"Like the Slytherins. . . ." she said.

"Oh, yea, Malfoy and his goons've been leaving us alone all year! I'll bet they're afraid now that most of the upper level students are gone, since they know Snape won't protect them when they get into trouble now, and that they can't just follow their parents and get marked for the honour, or whatever, of it," Ron said.

"Hm. I still say it is not like them. I think there's more to it than that. Harry, you look rather guilty, do you have any. . . oh."

A school owl fluttered in through a window that had opened for it, and landed in front of Ron. "Hm, what's this? Dumbledore says there's a student here who he has discovered is being abused and who normally goes home for the holidays. He is sending these to a random third of the students who normally stay, and are not in Slytherin, go figure. Oh, no, wait, the ones in Slytherin who will be in on this are younger year students who have come to him and said they are afraid of their families, and asked for protection. He wants us to let Professor Flitwick cast a charm on us that makes us look like we've got Spattergroit. Those of us who have, uh, become ill, will be stuck in the infirmary for the few days before the holidays start, and the one who is being forced to stay and doesn't know it yet will be drugged the day it starts so they can send an owl out to whoever it is's parents saying he can't go home."

"What if his parents demand he go to St. Mungo's instead?" asked Harry, hoping he knew who said student would be.

"Oh, right, I keep forgetting these things. We can leave if we have a cleaning charm cast on us and we're not sick, but if someone _is_ sick, they have to stay. They can't be moved, it's a law. We'll be given a higher strength potion, supposedly, to make it look like it was mild, the castle will be cleaned with high powered charms, and whoever it is will be stuck here until the next term starts. Hope he can find somewhere for them to go when summer hits."

"So he'll be drugging someone to make them stay? That doesn't sound very nice."

"Come on, Hermione," Harry replied, "would you rather see someone go home and come back bruised and bloody and marked, if at all, or would you rather the professors pull an underhanded scheme to keep him here until they can come up with a better solution?"

"Do you know who it is?" asked Ron.

"Er, no, why?"

"You said _him,_ and you referred to whoever it is getting marked against their will. Dumbledore's letter doesn't say gender or house. Or parental death eater status. He was very careful about that."

"I think that means it is a Slytherin," Hermione said. "Why else would the students from there have needed to ask to be in on this? He doesn't care that we tell each other, or that the Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws do, but he's afraid someone will let it slip back to someone else's parents. I think Harry was just guessing that correctly."

Harry shook his head. "Maybe it's because of the house politics, too. No, I still don't know who it is, but it could still be like you said. Someone might let it slip to the wrong person, but if they've come down with someone and no one knows how or why they did, no one can accuse anyone of anything."

"I suppose. What are you going to do, Ron?"

"I'm going to accept, of course. What else could I do? Whoever this person is, they need help, and I'd feel bad if I sent someone back to a bad home when I could actually do something." He shot Harry a guilty look, and Harry shrugged in response.

The day that the students who were leaving for the holidays, Harry was on edge. Ron had already been admitted into the hospital wing, and while he had been assured that he would not be getting any odd marks from the spell that would be cast, he was still nervous. In the end, he volunteered to help clear students to be allowed to leave. Some of the students who were staying and in on the scheme were able to take a fake training course to clear students who would be leaving. After skipping breakfast because he was unsure his twisting stomach would be able to keep anything in it, he stood outside waving his wand over students who came. Each time the door opened, his gut twisted just a bit more, hoping it was not Malfoy who he would see striding out.

About three quarters of his fellow students had left when he received the news that had him grinning despite himself. Malfoy had suddenly taken ill over breakfast. He had been speaking, and suddenly ran from the room. Well, ran being an overstatement, as he was apparently staggering. Professor Snape had found him hunched over one of the loos in the first floor, dry heaving since he had already lost what little he had eaten that morning, and starting to get pustules on his face. He had been admitted into the hospital wing right away, of course. "Wow, Potter, I know you don't like him, but you don't have to look _happy_ that he's sick!" snarled the upper year Slytherin student that Harry did not know, but had just cleared to go home for the break.

A day or two after everyone else had left, the mildest outbreak of Spattergroit Hogwarts had ever seen was over. Ron was back in Gryffindor, and was looking suspiciously at Harry, given who had come in on the first day of the holiday, screaming about how they could not keep him there, but offering no explanation as to why. Harry kept fending him off when he said that he still did not know it was to be Malfoy, of all people, staying for the break, but he also kept vanishing at odd times.

Harry's vanishing act had everything to do with the blond that he was hoping he could catch alone. He had seen the looks the other students, the ones who knew, were giving him. He had seen the way Malfoy was running from pretty much everything, even the other dozen or so Slytherins who had stayed behind. He was desperately trying to catch him alone. Trying and utterly failing. He wanted to help. He needed to help. He may have thought he hated Malfoy when they were younger, and he may have the impression that Malfoy still hated him, but he still felt the need to help him _more,_ darnit! If only the aggravating blond would cooperate!

All he wanted was to just tell him that he didn't actually hate him any more. That he couldn't hate him anymore. That he wanted to give them a second chance. Anything from friendship up to, yes, he was willing to entertain the possibility, a real relationship. Every time he got close, though, it seemed that Draco could sense it, and would bolt in the other direction. Not that Harry could entirely blame him, mind you, because Malfoy still did not know that he was Harry's soul mate, but if he could just get him alone sometime, he could explain. . . . Harry had the impression that his running had everything to do with not knowing how to show fear. It's not like Malfoy had earned the title of the Slytherin Ice Prince for nothing. If Harry had been asked to guess, he would say that not even Professor Snape, the professor Malfoy seemed to almost worship at times, knew about what had happened to him the summer before last. He didn't think that he had ever even opened up to someone like Crabbe, or Goyle, his goons, Zabini, the only other boy in his dorm he seemed to ever speak with, or Parkinson, his one time girlfriend. That, Harry reckoned, had him looking as he was now, like he was afraid of shadows. Either the ones caused by the sun, or the one that came in the form of a Gryffindor.

Harry was getting fed up. They only had a week before the other students would be returning, and he still had not gotten Malfoy to even look at him once over the break. Hermione and Ron had gone off to the library (or so they both claimed) for a study session, and Harry was alone in the common room. All of the other students were out for the day, playing outside, finishing homework, or just being elsewhere in the castle, enjoying the freedom and the lack of bustle. He had been toying with a quill for the better part of an hour before he finally sat up and said "screw this" aloud to himself. He dipped his quill into ink and wrote ' _meet me in the Gryffindor common room. Now. The password is Godric'_ on his arm.

He immediately felt like a fool. What was he doing? There was no way that Malfoy would go to the Gryffindor common room, of all places. He was, yet again, acting rashly. He should have gone to the Room of Requirement. At least if he had done that first, Malfoy would have a better chance of following his demand. Why would he _ever_ want to speak with Harry now, knowing that his soul mate was a Gryffindor? He had probably just made it more likely that Malfoy would cave to his father's demands now! He paced for a few minutes, thinking of more and more dreadful situations, and telling himself exactly how he had caused them before he let himself drop onto one of the couches with a sob.

Ten minutes had passed since he wrote on his arm when Harry noticed that the common room door was starting to creep open, as if the person on the other side of it was unsure of walking, literally, into the lion's den. He sat up straight, and watched as Malfoy crept in, every bit as unsure as Harry had figured he would be.

He glanced around the room, and when his eyes fell upon Harry, sitting up with a look of shock on his face, illuminated by the fire, his eyes widened. When the first thing Potter did was not hex him, Malfoy shuddered. Then he straightened his back, and tried to act as if he had not just been caught red handed sneaking into the Gryffindor common room by Saint Potter himself. "Potter. What. . . what are you. . . ." His stammering gave him away before looking down at his arm did. Though it was just a quick glance, it meant the world to Harry. He lifted his arm, slowly, and let the firelight hit the words he had written. Malfoy's eyes grew even wider, and the look of shock he wore matched Harry's from a couple minutes before almost perfectly. It would have been amusing, Harry, thought, to see that look on his face in years past. Harry felt himself start to blush a little as Malfoy said "it was you."

Harry nodded in return, then stood up and started towards Malfoy slowly, the way he would a scared animal, keeping his arm, and the writing on it, in sight the whole time. "I'm. . . I'm sorry for not seeing earlier. I'm sorry I wasn't able to help. I'm sorry for everything that's happened, and everything I didn't do right, and-"

Suddenly, though he could have sworn he had only crossed half of the distance towards the door, Malfoy was right in front of him, and right in his face. His words cut off as Malfoy reached up, hesitantly, and cupped his face with his hand. His breath caught when Malfoy's lips pressed softly against his. He reacted on instinct alone, wrapping his arms around Malfoy's waist, and drawing him closer. He rubbed small circles on his lower back with one hand, and he hoped, as a bit of the weight that had landed on his shoulders those past few months lifted, that he could convey everything he was hoping to. That above all else, despite everything else, Malfoy was now protected, was now untouchable, was now _safe._

Somehow, in the seconds, was it only seconds? It felt like years, no a lifetime, that they kissed, they made it back to where Harry had been sitting, and both looked a little bit shocked when they broke apart to notice that Malfoy had Harry, his new protector, pinned against the couch he had been sitting on earlier. Embarrassed, Malfoy tried to pull away, but Harry pulled him back, and after a few moments of shifting, the pair ended up side by side. Malfoy had his head resting on Harry's chest, listening to his heartbeat, and the pair had their hands linked between them.

They stayed like that, entirely silent, for a few minutes when Malfoy finally started to speak. It was hesitant at first, but once he started, he could not stop. "It. . . it wasn't always this bad. He'd never actually hit me before. Well, not often at least. I learned how to avoid it most of the time. Honestly? It's why I've always been so stuck-up and cocky. When. . . when you grow up like I did, it becomes a habit. He was so nasty to me all the time. I never really had any reason to be around muggles, but when we were in Diagon Alley, if I so much as talked to someone who wasn't pureblood, up until I learned not to at least, I'd be hit with a stinging hex. He could cast them without drawing too much attention, not like hitting me would do. Then when I got a bit older, I just started parroting him. I figured out that the more I said mudblood, or made fun of the Weasleys, the less he'd hurt me. And the more I figured out how to sound like I _meant_ it, the more he almost seemed to be proud of me at times. How messed up is that? But this summer? Everything changed. I always thought I was safe. That that monster was really gone. But when he came back, when you came back saying it, I kept making fun of you because I was desperately hoping that it just wasn't true."

He paused for a moment to shudder violently, and Harry wrapped his arms around him a bit tighter as he kept trembling. Then gave up, kept his arms around him and summoned a blanket which he carefully wrapped around both of them before he snuggled back up to Malfoy again. "I. . . the first thing he said to me when I got home was that I was getting marked. I wanted to throw up. Do you know how you get those?"

"No," Harry replied.

"You have to actually be one of them. I'm not one of them. I have never wanted to be one of them. I was a bigoted little shit when we started school, sure, but the more I stayed here, the more I saw how my father was wrong about everything. Your friend Granger is brilliant. She makes it look like she doesn't even have to _try_." Harry laughed, and Malfoy lifted his head for a moment to give him a quizzical look. "But she _is_ brilliant. She's also powerful. No one who has seen her in action can deny that. So either she was born to a witch and wizard who just didn't want to admit it for some reason, or everything I was taught was wrong. I can't hurt someone like that. I don't even want to hurt anyone. I want to be a potions master, like my godfather. I want to create new potions to heal people. But what they want me to do? You have to torture someone. In the time that the death eaters have been around, there have been all of three who have given some sort of information that was considered worthy enough for them to be marked without them needing to. Three. They pull muggles in on their raids, or sometimes muggleborns or half-bloods, or purebloods who won't agree with them, and they have you torture them. Cruciatus curse, various hexes and other curses, whatever they want you to demonstrate to prove that you're a well rounded wizard. Sometimes, if they think you have promise, they use it as a learning experience and teach you more of them. And then when they figure it's no more fun any longer, because the person is not able to scream any longer, you have to cast the killing curse on them. I don't want to do that. I can't do that." The pair stayed silent for a few moments. Harry let what Malfoy had just told him sink in. Tracey, and nearly half of the upper-class students at the school, had tortured and murdered people. People who had done nothing wrong except being born to what someone else considered the wrong parents. Malfoy, though, did not want to be a part of that world, he liked the one Harry was fighting for, the one where people would be judged for the way they behaved, not the blood in their veins.

Malfoy sighed. "When I said that, though? You'd think I told my dad that I thought he was a muggleborn who was lying about his heritage. He used the cruciatus on me. I was out for two days after he did. Then, because I was awake, he just started beating me. A smack here or there, a lash or three with his cane. Stinging hexes. Nothing horrible, nothing permanent. Then he started getting angrier that I was still refusing, and that's when he started really beating me. It was all I could do to harvest some potions supplies from my garden before it was destroyed so I could heal the worst of it, but I think that my father enjoyed that even more. If all of my marks were healed, he could beat me again, harder, longer, whatever. I think he was starting to regret destroying my garden when you started writing to me. I wanted to write more back, but I was just so _scared._ And my mum. I love her, but she can't do anything. He's more powerful than she is, because of how his lord taught him dark spells, and the couple times she tried to stick up for me, he hurt her even worse than he had been hurting me. He's too powerful at the ministry, so we can't even report it, they wouldn't do anything anyway." He stopped, his voice breaking, shuddered again, and leaned a bit more into Harry to let the sob he couldn't control become a bit muted.

Harry tilted his face up, leaning back a bit to grab Malfoy's hand again, and noticing that it was gripped back as if was a lifeline. He wiped a couple of tears off of Malfoy's face, and then kissed him again. He knew he was not good with words, so he hoped that he would be able to convey everything he needed to with his lips in a different way. It was soft and slow. A promise that Harry would be there whenever he needed, and that he would be there for as long as he was wanted. It wasn't enough, Harry doubted it could ever be enough. When they pulled apart, Harry whispered "I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry," over and over again, giving Malfoy the faintest hint of a kiss every time their lips met.

Malfoy finally pulled away when the blanket and the heat from the fire became too much for him. He shrugged the blanket off of their shoulders, letting it fall to their waists and gave Harry a small, sad, smile. "It's alright now, though, isn't it? I've got _you_ now, and that's all that matters. You've had the perfect life, how could it not be?"

Harry laughed a bit cynically. "My life has been far from perfect." He shook his head.

"Tell me about it?" Malfoy pleaded in a voice that Harry would never have expected to hear from him.

"Okay." He sighed, and Malfoy rested his head back on his shoulder to listen. "When I was little, yeah, it was perfect. I've seen pictures. My mum and dad adored me, so did my godfather, and their friends. Well, almost all of their friends at least. Do you remember that fuss with Sirius Black a couple of years ago?"

"Yeah. Odd, since my mum said that he was the good one in the family. She was still mystified that he ended up going dark."

"Well that's just it. He didn't."

"But he confessed."

"He. . . well, he did kill my parents, but not in the way you think he did. Not in a criminal way, but he got them killed out of his loyalty to them."

"That doesn't make any sense, Potter."

"They knew that Vo. . ." he censored himself, feeling Malfoy tense up, "That guy your dad follows was after them. Someone warned them, so they decided to put the house under the Fidelius Charm. Sirius was my godfather, loyal as could be, and was going to be their secret keeper, only somehow he got convinced that he would be tortured once the house was put under the charm, and he was terrified that if he was tortured long and hard enough that he would break and tell."

"That's ridiculous. The Fidelius Charm, if cast correctly, has an element to it that won't allow the secret keeper to tell its secrets unless he truly wants to tell them. If he's been tortured into thinking he wants to tell it, or even just dosed with Veritaserum, it won't work."

Harry shrugged. "Well, somehow someone convinced him that it wasn't the case. He wanted to make perfectly sure that he could never betray them, so he convinced my parents to have Peter Pettigrew become their secret keeper instead, not knowing that he was loyal to your dad's side of things. He betrayed them, they died, and then he set it up so that when my godfather went after him, he could vanish and make it look like he had been killed along with a lot of muggles. It worked, and Sirius honestly thought that he had as good as murdered them himself, which is why he kept saying he did it. To top it off, since Pettigrew's an unregistered animagus who can turn into a rat, he got away and just hid. If we can get to him, my godfather will be cleared, and I can make a claim that I should be able to live with him. Away from my aunt and uncle.

"I was dropped on their doorstep after my parents died, and they hate me for it. To them, anyone who can use magic is a freak. They hoped to somehow make me normal. Didn't work, obviously. The first thing that happened, that I really noticed, was the difference in the way I was treated compared to my cousin. He's my age, but he's treated like everyone thinks I must have been. He was allowed to do anything he wanted. He was fed anything he wanted. He was given anything wanted. He never had to do chores. Me? I had to do everything I was big enough to do. Started by me having to clean his room, then pulling weeds and planting new stuff. When I got tall enough, I had to start doing the dishes and cooking and doing the rest of the house chores since I could reach all of the surfaces. I was barely fed anything. I was privileged to be allowed to stay with them, so I had to sleep, most of the time locked in, in the cupboard below the stairs, and before I was old enough to hold it all night, or until they'd let me out, I'd be threatened and punished if I had an accident in there. I never got anything new, it was all his old clothes, which is why mine are always so horrible looking, and any toys I actually had were ones that were in the trash. If he broke it, or just hated it and I could scavenge it, it was mine. At least it was mine until he figured out I had it, then he would want it again, or complain that it was broken, then it'd get taken away again. If I made any friends, Dudley and his would scare them off. When they wanted to go somewhere, I got stuck with an old lady who lives in our neighbourhood and has a dozen cats while they left to have fun. If I got better grades than he did, I was punished, since I was trying to show him up. Of course, if I got poor enough grades to get notices, I'd get punished because I was calling attention to myself. Not that it should have mattered, since Dudley still hasn't passed a single class in his life. My aunt did most of his homework for him, had him diagnosed with testing anxiety so he wouldn't be caught just because he failed his tests, then my uncle started to donate enough to the school he went to when I went to Hogwarts that his marks were just sort of ignored.

"As for the physical side of things? We didn't have a way to hide the marks, so while me being underweight could be explained away as me just being little, instead of me being _starved_ , bruises couldn't. Except the ones Dudley was allowed to give me. He did that a lot, up until I came here. Hagrid, I know you can't stand him, but he had to come and get me. I kept getting letters, and my uncle kept destroying them before I could open any of them. I guess Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall finally got sick of not hearing back, so they had him come to collect me. My uncle had taken us for a so-called holiday on a little rock island, and Hagrid burst in, and scared them half to death. He gave me the first things I remembered getting from someone because they liked me. He gave me a cake that said happy birthday to _me_ on it. Dudley didn't even get to have any of the crumbs. Then he told me that I'm a wizard. After that, he took me to Diagon to get my school supplies, and he got me Hedwig while we were there. It's why I got so upset when you were so unpleasant about him. When I got back, things were a bit better. I got Dudley's spare room, the one he had been keeping all of the things that wouldn't fit in his main room in, because they were too scared I'd hex them or something. That was the only difference, though. Wait, no, change that. I got barred in, except for being allowed out once every other day to use the loo, or whenever they needed gardening done. They even installed a flap on the door so they didn't have to let me out for my daily meal.

"Of course, you know how things are here. One minute everyone adores me, then they hate me. Guess we just dealt with our respective elders differently, huh?"

Malfoy found that for once in his life he could not find the correct words to respond with, so he just leaned up and kissed Harry yet again. By the time the kiss was finished, Malfoy had finally figured out some of what he wanted to say. "How, though? I just don't get it. You're so nice. Even when we hated each other I could tell that. Yet you were raised like that? How is that even possible? I'm so sorry that I contributed to that."

Harry blushed as he started to respond. "You couldn't have known, and you were fighting your own demons, so no need to be sorry for it. I think it was the good start, coupled with me just knowing that I wanted to be better than them. I didn't want to sink to that sort of a level, so I always tried to not let them get to me."

As the two sat there, they both realised how odd their conversation was. Harry had given up hating Malfoy, or should he start to think of him as Draco? He reckoned he should. Had hated _Draco_ up until the beginning the year, when he saw what happened while they were all waiting to board the Hogwarts Express, and figured out what was going on though if he was being honest with himself, once he started to find his real-world enemies, Voldemort, or even Pettigrew, he couldn't even say that he hated him anymore. He had become a person of no more consequence than an insect buzzing around. Nothing to care about if he wasn't near, and if he was, he was just an annoyance to be swatted away before he went on with his day again.

Draco had known for some time that he had never really hated Potter, or should that be Harry now? He had resented him at first for what he stood for, and the easy life he had assumed his rival had led, but the taunting had quit being fun, and had become more a habit, and a way to let out the fear and anger he was left feeling over his living situation. How could he have ever thought such things?

While it was sudden, Harry knew after their discussion that he never wished to be parted from Draco. He felt more complete than he ever had while speaking with him. The two spoke quietly for another few minutes, nothing of any importance, just two wizards getting to know each other, before the emotions they had been exposing left them both falling asleep.

Ron and Hermione happened to be the first two back to the common room, and Ron was the first to notice. "Is that _Malfoy?_ What's he doing here, and with Harry too!" He started over, turning red, but Hermione stopped him.

"No, Ron, wait! Remember this year? Everything that's been happening? We know Malfoy is the one who has been abused, but Harry's also mentioned a few suspicious things. He somehow knew. Is that writing on his arm?"

They crept over and tried to figure out what was on them. "They're. . . oh that's just weird." Ron whispered, his upper lip curling.

"What is?"

"They're soul mates. That's how he knew."

"How can you tell?"

"The writing. It's not as common anymore, but if you've got a soul mate who gets a mark of some sort, you get it too. If someone was beating Malfoy, Harry would have been getting bruises too. If he wrote a message to Malfoy, it'd be on Malfoy also. Look, you can see a bit of writing on his arm there."

"Oh. So what does this mean?"

"Means we'll have to get used to Malfoy hanging around. I just hope that Harry has enough guts to stand up to him if he acts like he always has towards us. I'm not going to keep being an ass towards Malfoy if he doesn't keep giving us reason to."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "That's very mature of you, Ron."

"They're stuck with each other. Harry'll be happier with him than with anyone else. If Malfoy is willing to swallow his pride and be civil, we need to do the same. I'm sure that we can apologise at some point, all three of us, since I'm assuming those two have made up, but it wouldn't be fair to Harry if we continued to act like jerks."

"Sometimes I forget that though your family isn't extreme, that you grew up with all of this." The door to the common room opened just then, allowing a couple of loud third years in. After a glance at each other, Ron and Hermione rushed to the door, motioning for them to be quiet. "Hey, Malfoy's here. He and Harry fell asleep on one of the couches, shush or you'll wake them up."

Both of the younger students looked afraid for a minute, and Ron rolled his eyes. "He's not going to be a jerk to us any longer, I don't think, but go up to your rooms if you want to be loud, yeah?" They nodded and retreated up the stairs. "Maybe we should stay out here to keep everyone quiet? No sense in his first time here being ruined by how loud we are."

"You know, it's funny. This just feels like it's fate. That they'd end up together. They couldn't seem to stand each other, yet they were always so intertwined with each other."

"Two sides of one coin, really. Malfoy's father was apparently treating him like Harry's aunt and uncle treated him. They just figured out different ways to cope."

For the rest of the evening, until everyone was back, Ron and Hermione warned the other students who had stayed for the holiday that Malfoy was now a fixture for them, and to please not make his first experience with them a negative one. For some strange reason, all of the Gryffindors who had stayed were more than willing to comply.

The next morning, when Harry and Draco awakened, it was to a few younger students sneaking out, and Ron and Hermione speaking quietly, while waiting for them. Harry's eyes grew large upon seeing his friends. "Hermione, er, Ron, hey, um. . ." Draco yawned, stretched, and sat up, looking prim, but concerned.

"Hey, we've been waiting for you two to join us. Room of Requirement so we can talk like adults?" Ron asked, secretly enjoying the small smile he received from Hermione in return.

"You up for this this morning?" Harry asked Draco, and when he nodded, Harry said "Alright, let's go. We could ask an elf to bring you some fresh clothes if you'd like."

"That would be nice" Draco said, then called for one.

A few minutes later, the four were sitting in a cosy den. "I never knew this place was here. This is incredible." Malfoy commented.

"We've been using it for a meeting place. Harry's been teaching us defence, since Umbridge won't."

Ron gave Hermione a questioning look at that, and Draco's eyes lit up. "Do you suppose I could get in on that? Possibly with a few of the others from our year? I know Pansy and Blaise would be in. They want out of what their parents have planned for them. Millicent is too much like them to be trusted, so is Georgina. Theo's father is a death eater, but I don't think he follows that. He is too smart to, frankly. You can decide on Crabbe and Goyle, too. They're not very bright, really, and should follow orders, but it really depends on who is able to put on a bigger impression, us that they'll die, or their parents that they'll be beaten and murdered. Daphne's family is not with them, so she would definitely join your club. Her younger sister Astoria would as well. Hm, I wouldn't trust anyone older than us, I don't really know many of them personally, and over half of them are gone anyway. The younger students I'm sure we could vet somehow, and Astoria should be willing to help with that."

The three Gryffindors looked astonished at his willingness and his inability to stop speaking once he thought he might have a chance to get out from under his father's wing. "You really think they'd be willing to? Especially Pansy, she seems to hate us as much as we thought you did." Hermione remarked.

"You saw her when Tracey was found out. She hates what her father does, and she wants to be one of them about as much as I'd assume any of you do."

"You mentioned Crabbe and Goyle. If they joined, do you think they would be loyal, or do you suppose they would eventually turn when they're told to?" asked Ron.

"Depends. If we can convince them we're the stronger side, they'll stick with us. If they just go back home without any sort of discussion, they'll definitely take the mark. Then again, even if we do convince them we're the strong side, they might not really be bright enough to remember it once their fathers start talking to them again."

"I don't think it would be safe to include them, then. We require loyalty for this, and the only reason we even thought to mention it to you is because of Harry. If you think they'll take the mark unless we can convince them otherwise, it seems too risky. Besides, the paper Hermione made for signatures is cursed. If anyone tells someone who intends to rat us out to Umbridge, they'll be hexed for good." Hermione gave a smug smile.

"May I sign it now?"

"Right now? You're sure?" asked Harry.

"Completely. I'm not going back to who I was before, not now. I want to prove that I'm with you."

Hermione shrugged, astonished he had agreed so quickly, but happy for Harry's sake that he had, and produced a piece of parchment along with a quill and ink. Draco signed it with a smile. "There. I'm one of you now. Not to just hope that someone can find a way for me to stay out of the manor after this year is up, and life will be grand."

"We can ask if you can stay with Sirius. I mean, he's a bit stir crazy for being locked at his home, but he's related to you."

"I'll bolt if nothing else. Do you think he'll let me stay there?"

"We've got a floo, we can find out."

A pinch of powder later, and Sirius was in the Room of Requirement with the four students. "This is dangerous, Harry, why did you ask me to come through?"

"It's not accessible because of the room's magic, so she shouldn't be able to monitor this one. I know you haven't met him, but this is Draco Malfoy, your cousin, and my soul mate. Draco, this is Sirius Black, my godfather."

"I'm pleased to meet you, sir." Draco said, holding out his arm.

"What's the writing for?" Sirius asked, shaking hands with him. He glanced at Harry, raising an eyebrow. Harry knew he would be concerned about a Malfoy being that close, but was glad Sirius was at least waiting to see what they would all say before he went on the offensive.

"Oops, we forgot to vanish that."

Once more the story of how Draco and Harry came to be an item was told. When they were finished, Sirius said "You can stay with me. Not a problem. The wards won't let anyone else through, I'll make sure of that, though I wish Dumbledore would let _you_ stay with me too," he said, shooting a glance at Harry.

"That makes two of us. I'll keep working on him, maybe he will eventually. Either way, thank you, Sirius, this means a lot. Can he just floo in after the school year is over?"

"Yes. It's monitored, sure, but they can't find my house because of the Fidelius on it, so unless they close down the floos altogether, he can get there. Get the address from Dumbledore before the year is up, okay? I really should leave before the castle rats me out somehow. I'll see you in a few months. Don't keep forgetting to talk to me, Harry, and don't forget that I gave you that mirror so you can."

"Okay, thank you again, Sirius!" he said as Sirius stepped back through the floo.

"He's got money, so aside from getting supplies and such, you don't have to worry." Harry said.

"I wouldn't anyway. I've got an emergency fund that my father can't touch. It's an old tradition among some of the wealthier families. They'll set us up with something in case one of our family members is not careful, or honest, so we will have something to live off of. I obviously won't have as much as I have been used to, but I've got enough money to last me a dozen lifetimes without any worry." He carefully avoided looking at Ron while he spoke, not wanting them to think he was bragging. It would not make sense to destroy the surprising truce he seemed to have forged with Harry's friends before he could actually gain their friendship.

"Oh. Well, okay, then. What do you guys want to do?"

The rest of the day, the foursome stayed in the Room, speaking, catching Draco up a bit on some of the spells he had missed, and getting to know each other a bit better. The rest of the holiday passed in a blur, and in no time, the other students had returned from their break.

Pansy, not noticing the Gryffindors, squealed when she saw Draco waiting for them in the entry. She rushed over and hugged him. "I'm so glad you're feeling better, Draco!" she said.

Draco lifted her and spun her around. "Of course, darling, like there was any worry? I'm glad it's just you two, though," he said, nodding at Blaise. Despite their friendship with Draco, the lure of the great hall had proven to be too much for Crabbe and Goyle to resist. Blaise, for his part, was staring at the Gryffindor trio standing nearby, but was making no hostile gestures towards them. "By the way, this is my soul mate, Harry Potter, and his best friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. These are my best friends Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson."

Pansy and Blaise looked momentarily stunned. "Well, that's not surprising somehow." said Blaise.

"Yes, yes. I get it. Anyway, we have a proposition for you. Daphne, Astoria, come over here!" he called.

The sisters had walked in later than everyone else, and shared a glance at each other, then the Gryffindors standing with their friends.

"It's safe. We need to discuss something, though." They walked over, cautiously, and stayed silent as Draco had Hermione produce the piece of parchment he wanted them to sign. "These lot have a secret defence club going. They're using it since we're not learning anything this year in class, but had not opened it to us because they did not know that there were some of us who were not in with our families. Anyone else who you know we can trust can be brought in. Anyone who we don't know should be excluded. You _will_ be dealt with in a very unpleasant manner if you decide to turn this over to Umbridge, or to bring in someone else who would. Any takers?"

Pansy immediately reached for the quill Hermione was holding. "I'm in. I refuse to follow that madman, and learning how to stay safe this summer is something I definitely need. Besides, Draco is my best friend. Where he leads, I follow."

"My family doesn't really follow him, but I trust Draco. I know he can't stand him. He's also the smartest bloke in our year." He started, careful not to say person, since he still had not figured out if he thought Draco was smarter than Hermione, or if the opposite was true. "He says we should join your side, and I'm in. I'm assuming Crabbe and Goyle are not?"

"No. Neither are Georgina or Millicent. Daphne, Astoria?"

They both nodded and signed. "You've not steered us wrong before, I can't see you starting to now. We wouldn't join up with that thing anyway. I'll keep an ear out with the other kids in my class." Astoria promised.

"Great, now we just need to get Theo alone."

In the end, an additional ten students from Slytherin joined. The rest were either deemed too risky, because of family loyalties, or seemed too uninterested in actually committing to a side.

Much to the surprise of the students who had been part of the DA the entire year, the Slytherins had enough pride that they decided amongst themselves that it would be wise for them to prove themselves. The sixteen of them worked and studied hard to catch up. As an added bonus, a few of them had been taught dark spells that would not trigger the castle's wards. Hermione took a lot of convincing, but when the Slytherin students proved that they could shield against those spells, and that they could easily counter them if someone was hit, she allowed the Slytherins to cast them at the rest of the DA to practice shields on the condition that if anyone was injured by one of them at any point, the use of those spells would be ceased immediately.

Interestingly enough, the only large snag that was hit was the one between Pansy and George, and it was not caused because they did not get along. It was caused because they got along too well. George, in his typical manner, decided to welcome the new students to the group. He and Angelina had broken up peacefully shortly after the Yule Ball the year before, and she was now dating his brother. He strode to the Slytherin group, which was still grouped together tightly on their first day there, and pulled Pansy aside to practise with her. "Ah, here we go. I've been looking for someone new to experiment with, and to find a pretty girl like you here? You've just become it."

Pansy looked horror struck, and sputtered her way out to the far side of the room while George dragged her by an arm. She stood frozen in front of him while he pulled his wand and bowed to her. "You get first go. If those tossers didn't explain the rules to you, nothing deadly, nothing disfiguring. Try to cast small jinxes and the like, I'll try to block them, then try to return them while you're blocking. Standard stuff, really."

She grabbed her wand and stiffly returned his bow before looking at the room which had gone silent to watch them. Angelina, Fred and Lee were trying to hold back snickers, the Slytherins looked as if they were ready to come to her aid at a moment's notice, and the other members who had been there for a while stood on looking anywhere from amused to slightly concerned. She shot a few spells at him, ones he easily blocked, and once he saw her relax, he shot one back of his own. Then, with a wave of his wand, a bouquet of flowers appeared. "You probably shouldn't pause on a battlefield," he said, "but would you care for these? And perhaps a weekend getaway in Hogsmeade, next time we have one?"

Pansy's mouth fell open. "Those are for me?" she asked, her voice more high-pitched than was normal. He nodded. Despite the few calls urging her not to take them, she grabbed the bouquet and gave it a tentative sniff. Then a stronger one. "They smell lovely!" she said.

"The flowers didn't do anything," Ron said. "No ink, no bad smells, no nothing. My brother and my best mate have both fallen for Slytherins. Have I been hit in the head recently?"

Hermione rewarded him with a smack, and said "I think it is sweet. Maybe you could learn a lesson or two from that gesture."

At the promise of second Slytherin and Gryffindor couple, any lingering discomfort between any of the students quickly faded away. The Slytherin students quickly caught up to the level that the rest of the students were at, and became more and more a part of the blended group every time they went to a meeting. The group progressed well, up until Marietta Edgecombe betrayed them, coming into the room after Umbridge did, while sobbing hysterically over her ruined face. Draco later admitted to Hermione that he was quite impressed by her spellwork, and that he might need to quit underestimating Gryffindors, causing Harry to give him a quick jab to the side. Hermione and Ron both shook their heads as Harry and Draco both flinched, then began to laugh.

The only other problems any of the group had before exams started was when Fred and George left the school after causing the entire castle to erupt into mayhem. Pansy broke down when they did. She had quickly fallen head over heels for George, and was distraught when he left. She refused to leave her room, claiming to be ill, until Draco dragged her to dinner that evening. She and Angelina both got howlers over dinner, from their respective boyfriends, synchronised to go off at the same time, reciting a cheesy love poem. The names changed, and there was a bit of back and forth between the two howlers, especially on the names, but when both professed their love across the great hall it was at the same time, then both of the howlers burst into flames. While Umbridge was busy trying to figure out how to quiet the riotous laughter over her lack of control, Pansy quickly cast a spell on the ashes remaining from her howler. She shaped them, then cast a spell that used high heat, and high pressure to turn it into a diamond shaped like a flower. She slipped it into her pocket, and after dinner had one of the other students wrap a small wire around it, hung it from a chain, and put a charm on it so that it could never fall, or be taken off of her.

The day after the exams ended, Draco was curled up with Harry in the Gryffindor common room. "Have I mentioned yet that I now understand why you laughed at me when I was discussing Hermione with you the day we started dating?" Draco asked.

"What? Harry, what's this? Why were you discussing me, and why did _you_ laugh?"

"He said that you were perfect. That he figured out pretty quickly that you weren't the weak, dimwitted caricature that his father painted of muggleborns, and so if you had a brain, how could he imagine that anyone else would be? Then he went on to say that even if you were just the top muggleborn out there, he was still impressed. Since you didn't even have to look in your book once to get all of this stuff, how could he discriminate against any of you just for blood?"

When he finished speaking, Ron started laughing. "You thought what? Oh, that's great! We've been studying like this since first year!"

He continued laughing while Hermione did not know how to respond. "Well, I. But he. . . Oh. . . Thank you for thinking that way, Draco, I am honoured that I was part of the reason your mind changed. Harry! Ronald! Both of you stop laughing at me this instant!"

The group fell asleep nearly in a pile in the common room that afternoon, and were awakened a few hours later when Harry started to flail and scream in his sleep, followed by him clutching his scar. Draco had never been around Harry when he was having a vision, and freaked out. Hermione and Ron ended up dragging him away from Harry and casting privacy charms around all of them so that they would not be noticed, then a calming spell on Draco to ensure that he would not injure any of them trying to get to Harry. "We just have to ride them out. We haven't figured out a way to snap him out of them yet. You've heard about his visions, right?"

" _That_ is how he reacts when he is having one?"

"Unfortunately. Oh, he's coming to, Harry. . . Hey, where are you going?" Harry had risen and staggered towards the portrait as soon as he started to rouse.

"They have him! They have Sirius,and they're torturing him and. . . and . . . the coins! Hermione, tell everyone we have to go! We have to get to the ministry! It's where they've got him! He's in the Department of Mysteries. We've got to get to Umbridge's floo somehow so we can warn. . . we can warn. . . ." He collapsed into the wall, and found Draco helping him to the floor. "No, we can't stay here, we have to get to him!"

Harry struggled with Draco, until he said " _Accio mirror_ " without having responded to Harry once. "Sirius Black, can you hear me?"

Harry's eyes widened. "Of course! The mirror!"

"I'm here, how are. . . Harry? What's happened?"

"Sirius? _Sirius!_ You're alright! They don't have you?"

"Who doesn't have me? What's going on?"

"You were at the. . . Mmpfh! Aagooo!" Sirius's face twisted into concern in the mirror.

"Harry just had a vision. Are you trying to get him killed, Harry? Do _not_ tell him where they were thinking of going! It must have been a nightmare instead, since you are obviously _fine."_ He accented the final word with a glare at his boyfriend. "We will take this to one of the professors who can do something about it. I am sorry to have bothered you, but I am glad to see that you are safe. Please do stay that way, Sirius, for all of our sakes."

"Will do. Harry, feel better." As the connection between the mirrors cut out, they could see that Sirius's face was twisted with concern, but seeing as how Draco ensured that he did not know where the vision had taken place, he could also not leave to get there.

Harry shuddered. "I'm so glad I've got you. I'd have led him right into the ministry and whatever trap they have set up there."

"Think, love, think. It's all well and good that you're ridiculously brave, but being brave will do you no good if it gets you or those close to you killed. Let's go to the dungeons."

"Why?"

"My godfather can alert a couple of members of the order. They can, in turn contact the aurors. The Department of Mysteries has some pretty serious wards on it. If we let them know, those wards can be activated. Anyone will still be allowed in, but no one will be able to get _out_ again. The aurors can collapse the wards in room by room until they have them trapped in a spot where it will be easy for them to grab them all and take them to Azkaban."

Hermione was studying the two of them carefully. "You two are good for each other. I'm glad you decided to listen to the magic instead of just figuring you were enemies for so long that it wouldn't matter." With that she walked out, Ron nodding his agreement with her words at the two of them, and they all made their way to the dungeons.

Professor Snape did not look at all thrilled to see the three Gryffindors trailing his godson, especially the one whom he had thrown out of the dungeons quite recently. "Professor, I'm sorry." started Harry, as soon as they entered. "It was wrong of me to look at your memories in the pensieve, and I won't do anything like that again."

"You did _what_?" asked Ron. "Harry, he was supposed to be helping you get rid of these things, and you did that?"

"I am impressed with your attitude, Mr. Weasley. Now what brings the four of you here?"

"I had a vision, sir, but it was apparently a false one. They had Sirius in the Department of Mysteries, and they were torturing him. Draco was there, fortunately, and he remembered that I've got a mirror that I can use to talk to him. When we did, he was safe at home. I'd have led him into a trap Or led us into a trap. I'm not sure which."

Draco led Harry to a chair while Professor Snape called a patronus into being. Harry stared at the beautiful silvery doe, feeling a bit more comfortable seeing her there, and watched as she was sent off with a message for Kingsley and Tonks. "There. That is done. Any of them who are foolish enough to go into the department, thinking you will be there will be led to a trap themselves. There are ways to make it appear that people have gone in, and I am assuming that will be done to lead them in. Mr. Malfoy, we should probably discuss your mother. If the dark lord has your father go in to try to apprehend Mr. Potter here, she could be able to leave the manor. Shall we try?"

Draco quit fussing over Harry for a moment. "Yes! We should! We can try to see if she can stay with me at Sirius's house. Assuming there is some way for her to get in. Oh, how am _I_ going to get in for that matter? I guess I was too relieved at being able to get out of the manor this summer to even worry about it."

Professor snape produced a small piece of paper with an address on it. "All of the higher level order members have insurance. Dumbledore figured out a way to add an emergency ward to the house so that we could bring someone in in the event something happened to him. Memorise this, then send it to her with a note saying what is going on. You two should go to the mirror to tell Sirius to be expecting a things go well for our side at the ministry."

"Thank you, sir." the lot replied, and headed out.

When they arrived at the split, Draco hugged Harry. "I'm ridiculously glad that Sirius is loyal to the rest of what he considers his house, even if we are a messed up lot that consists mostly of people who aren't actually related to him. I'll see you after I've sent this out"

"Sirius? As in the wanted criminal Sirius Black?" called a deceptively sweet voice.

"Get to the owls, we'll cover this." whispered Harry as Draco froze. Though they had not worn it, Harry had carried his cloak with him anyway, and tossed it over Draco before turning to see Umbridge.

"What did you do? Where did he go?" she demanded.

"He's sending a letter to his mother. I didn't think that had been banned yet." Hermione taunted.

"Do not take that tone with me, ah, Professor Snape! How lovely to see you! These Gryffindors are lying and causing trouble! Get me some veritaserum so that I can question them properly."

Professor Snape raised an eyebrow at the woman, then looked at the trio. "Sadly, you used the last of my stock last week with that first year. What were the three of you doing?"

"Four. Mr. Malfoy was here a moment ago. He vanished."

"Madam, you do know that you cannot apparate from within the castle, right?"

"Would you like to look for a new job, Professor?"

"We were on our way outside." butted in Hermione. "I. . . I'm sorry, I just can't stand being part of this any longer, Harry, Ron, please forgive me!" Both boys looked mystified. "Draco went to send a letter to Dumbledore. To tell him that his weapon is almost finished."

"Hermione, what are you doing?" hissed Harry.

"I knew it! Professor Snape, you are to intercept Mr. Malfoy and destroy that letter. You three, come with me. Now. You will show me where it is. This way I can take it in and prove that you are unstable without having to resort to tricks." Professor Snape looked at the manic glint to Umbridge's eye and took off towards the owlery, wand out to protect Draco should it come to him needing to.

Hermione led Umbridge through the forbidden forest, trying to find her way to the centaurs, while trying to pretend she was looking for something. "I know it was this way. Oh, these trees always shift around!" She was in hysterics, and was either letting the stress finally get to her, or giving everyone a convincing act to show that she was looking for a path that she had forgotten.

They walked for a half hour when a deep voice boomed "Halt" from the trees. They stopped and found themselves face to face with the centaurs who called the forest home. "What are you doing here?"

"We're trying to find it. Oh, I can't find it. I don't remember where we have it. We don't always use the same path. . . ."

"Boy children, do you know what this one is babbling about?"

Umbridge strode up to them, wand ahead of her and disgust written across her face. "We are looking for the weapon that Dumbledore hid in this forest. If you do not wish to be hunted down to be used as rugs, you will either get out of our way, or tell us where it is!" she demanded.

A few of the centaurs picked up their weapons. They knew the witch's magic could kill them, but reckoned they could take her out before she could injure too many of the herd. "And you, child, what have you to say to this?"

"Oh, but it's here. I know it is. I've seen it before, it was big, and it could hurt the ones who disagree with him so very badly! It would show them all! But I've lost it!"

One of the centaurs walked over to her. Umbridge tried to follow, but was grabbed by two of the others, and started to scream. "You are not fooling me, child," the one who had approached Hermione whispered, "what is it that you seek?"

"Hagrid's brother. I am hoping he could scare her badly enough, since he's not aware of his size and he likes me, that she would just leave. Or not be able to come back."

"You have taken the same path each time to get there. Why deviate from it now?"

Hermione's eyes temporarily widened. "I was hoping that if the path was crooked enough that she would not be able to follow it back to have him hurt if she lived."

"Hmmm. Live she shall, though we shall teach her not to wander here first, I imagine. This child tells the truth," he said louder. He shot her a quick glance to indicate that he knew she was lying, but that he did not feel confident enough to know what she hoped to find in the forest, "We should be off. It's been years since I've had this much fun."

Hermione shuddered as she watched the centaur herd vanish with the still screaming Umbridge, then gave a wicked grin as her screams turned from rage to terror. "We should get back. Make sure Draco got his owl off okay, and wait for any news that comes our way."

"What did you just do to her?"

"Scamander's book on centaurs. Read chapter eleven."

The smug vindictive tone in Hermione's voice gave both boys reason to pause, wondering if they truly did wish to know what was going to happen to the worst teacher they had ever known. They followed Hermione back out of the forest, and though they had not followed one they knew into it, they followed a trail of sparkles she had cast without anyone else noticing to get back. They approached the front doors to Hogwarts nearly three hours after they left, to see a frantically pacing Draco, and a stoic Professor Snape watching him.

"Hey, we're safe." Harry said when they got close, only to be knocked over when Draco pounced on him.

"You were gone for hours! And I kept getting little cuts from something! I wasn't sure if you were running into bushes, or being tortured somehow!"

"How would someone torture me with little occasional cuts?"

"Cruciatus, you idiot. If you were thrashing around, you could easily have hit things!"

"But wouldn't I have also been getting bruises from the various things I was hitting?"

"Well. . . I suppose so, but. . . oh, stop it! You're not supposed to be the logical one!"

"Right then. May I get up? Your godfather is giving me a death glare. Also, have you heard anything about what is going on yet?"

Draco stood and helped Harry up, then the pair walked to where Professor Snape was indeed giving Harry a death glare, while Ron and Hermione were trying to keep out of his notice while snickering.

"We have received a couple of patronuses from Kingsley and Tonks. The death eaters did indeed fall for our trap, and at least twenty of them entered the Department of Mysteries. At this point, all I have been told is that the trap is working. No one will be able to apparate out. That they do not have an exact count of how many are in there, or who they are. We also, unfortunately, do not know if the dark lord himself is among them or if he was waiting for his trap to be sprung so he could get notice that he could go in to destroy you."

"Right, because that's not creepy at all." said Harry. "So what do we do now, just wait?" He received a nod. "Draco, have you gotten word to your mum yet?"

"Yes. Since Hermione seemed to know what she is doing" he looked over and shuddered at the dark grin still on her face, "we broke into the floo in the office. Sirius said that my mother can stay there as long as she needs to. We flood her second, and she said that my father had just been called out. She packed a couple of quick bags, and took off for Grimmauld Place before that monster could notice that she was trying to do anything out of the ordinary. I guess my father has invited him to stay there for the time being. She got to your godfather's home without trouble, and while she is not happy, per se, she is safe there. That is all that matters to me."

"Definitely all that matters."

The four followed their professor to the dungeons, and waited around to hear word of the death eaters caught. None of them realised until they heard a man's voice speaking that it was morning, and they had all eventually crashed in an undignified pile in the sitting area connected to Professor Snape's living quarters. "Was sadly not with them, but we have a full thirty, including Lucius Malfoy and Peter Pettigrew. I'm rather surprised of that one, honestly. Seems He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named must be getting sick of his pet rat. This does mean we can get Sirius cleared, though. Tonks sent her patronus to Dumbledore, so he'll probably be back at the school soon, and you can start to figure out how to do that." With that, the lynx that had been sitting in front of the professor dissolved into mist.

"How much of that did you hear?"

"Likely all that matters. They caught my father, and the man who betrayed the Potters, and they didn't catch the dark lord."

Professor Snape nodded. "Harry, this means you have a choice to make."

"Me?"

"Yes. How much do you know of why you stay at your aunt and uncle's house each summer?"

"I'm supposed to be safe there. That's about it."

"I know that you are a Gryffindor, but do you think, if it is important, you can keep information from the headmaster?"

"If it will get me out of that house, I could know that half of your students are marked, and not tell him."

"Overly dramatic as always. Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, I can include you in this, as Harry would likely tell you himself, or I can exclude you. Which do you prefer?"

"I want to know." Said Ron.

"Me as well." Said Hermione. "He's our best friend. We might be able to help with what you're planning."

"Very well then. I must apologise before I do or say anything else. I am fairly certain the dark lord was at the ministry to get a prophecy that I overheard. It said _the one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies, and the dark lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the dark lord knows not._ That was what I heard, and I received my mark for telling him this." The collective students all gasped. "I was young, foolish, and had been treated poorly by too many people. Your mother was my only friend growing up, but after that memory which you saw in which your father was attacking me, I lashed out at her, and it was the final straw that destroyed our friendship. With no one who was at least decent to sway my actions, I soon fell in with those who had the sheer power and numbers to protect me. When I heard the prophecy, it was at a time when I wished to be marked because of the added protection it offered me, while knowing that I could not torture someone, or murder them. To this day it is something I have not done.

"When I found out that your family was being targeted, along with Mr. Longbottom's, I begged him to spare your lives. When I figured out it would not work, I turned to Dumbledore with the information, and he at least tried. That is why I became loyal to him, and will always remain so. It is also why I have been protecting you these years you have been at the school. I will never be able to atone for what I had a part of, but I can at least continue what Lily started, and do whatever it takes to protect you. It turns out I left before the prophecy was finished. There was another part that mentioned that _you_ must be the one to kill him. It cannot be another.

"As to why you must stay at the Dursley's house, Dumbledore feels that the protection your mother gave you when she stood in front of the dark lord as he was planning to murder you gave you a measure of blood protection. A ward around the house that cannot be broken by death eaters or the dark lord himself, until you become of age. There are some of us in the order who feel that that protection is now gone. The dark lord used your blood to come back from the dead, meaning that your mother's blood flows in his veins as well. This was proven when he could touch you in the graveyard with no consequence. As Sirius is your godfather, and will take proper care of you, it is my suggestion that you do not mention this conversation to the headmaster. He will be brought before the wizengamot to be cleared of crimes committed since we have the rat in custody. After he is cleared, he will be able to make a motion to gain custody of you, as he should have had in the first place. Do you accept?"

"Is that even a choice? Stay with people who starved me, let my cousin beat me up, made sure I had no friends, hid my life from me, and treated me like Draco's dad does his house elves, without the beatings, or go with my godfather, who despite his faults actually cares about what happens to me? I'll stay quiet, believe me."

Professor Snape nodded after sending Draco as quick glance, wondering why magic had to choose this specific person for his godson. "Good. The headmaster will likely be quite irritated at this, but there are quite a few of us who agree that this will be our best choice of action when it comes to keeping you safe. I will floo the mutt later to say that our suggestion has been received favourably. For now, I would suggest that the four of you leave for breakfast, so no one notices your absence."

The wizarding press was crazy that summer. Sirius Black finally got his trials. The trial for conspiracy to murder James and Lily, the trial for conspiracy to kill Harry, the trial for the murder of Peter Pettigrew, the trial for using magic in front of muggles. He was convicted of the last, but given the amount of time he had spent in Azkaban, he was given a pardon from the ministry, and was given a decent amount of restitution for the overly harsh sentence he had served. That restitution came in the form of being given his rightful custody over Harry, after it was discussed that the blood wards around Privet Drive would have been non-functional after the dark lord was revived. As predicted, Dumbledore was not exactly happy with the small group who had orchestrated the coup, but as the wizengamot had agreed, there was nothing to be done for it.

Another side effect of the summer was that Draco and his mother were able to go home. While the death eaters and the dark lord had made a base of the manor, the fact that Draco and Narcissa had run when Lucius was arrested helped sway the decision. The pair asked that the ministry go in and wipe out any death eaters who were on the property, and give control of it and the Malfoy funds to Draco. The dark lord escaped yet again, but the ministry caught an additional ten death eaters. The pair put more wards up on the building, had Sirius become secret keeper for their fidelius charm, and soon it was as well protected as Grimmauld. Pansy was delighted with that news. Her father had avoided capture in any of the raids, and even though Draco's family had obviously defected, he still allowed her to stay at Malfoy Manor occasionally when she said they were going over ways to get extra credit for the next school year. With the Malfoy family's newfound acceptance of muggleborns and so-called blood-traitors, Draco saw her all of once, while her boyfriend had many a date while she was free of school.

Harry lived like he had always dreamed of that summer. His godfather adored him, so he was not treated like a house elf. He was able to have friends over, and to visit with them when he wished to. He went to Diagon Alley a few times to get school supplies, or just to sit outside or walk around in the wizarding world. Harry was able to read over his text books before the school year started. He would never remember everything in them the way Hermione always could, but he got a basic understanding of most of what he would be doing. He was able to practice his spells, since he was in a wizarding house, and was able to play quidditch a few times with the Weasleys and Draco. He ate like he did at Hogwarts, and could not remember being left hungry after a meal even once. In short? The summer could not have been more unlike the last one if fate itself was working against Harry. It was also over the summer that Harry finally figured out how he felt about Draco. He knew that he was in love with him. Once Draco knew he was safe, and would not need to fear living in his father's shadow, he started to open up. He would never have the bold personality that the Gryffindors tended to, of course, but he was able to relax around them. The smiles that Harry had found so drawing when he was spying on Draco were a frequent site. Draco even became comfortable wandering around the burrow by himself, and learned how to joke with Ron without getting into a fight. When he was not on the receiving end of Draco's snarky attitude, he was able to have wonderful conversations with him either about important things, or nothing at all. All of those things made Harry adore him. He found himself frequently telling Draco how much he regretted not getting along with him all those years.

Even with the relaxing summer. nothing surprised Harry more than the almost laid back sixth year that he had. So many bad things were going on around them in the world at large yet, as if to spit it, he and his boyfriend were closer than ever, his friends were still getting along with him, and he did not have any direct threats on his life, or as Hermione gleefully put it, his education, during the bulk of the year.

While he was in school that year, he learned about horcruxes, and was told he would be partially responsible for helping destroy them. Dumbledore, for his part, had already destroyed one. He was also continuing to look for them, and was on the trail, he thought, for a second. Aside from that, however, or the thought that he now found potions to be an easier class with the help of his second-hand book, and the new professor, the only thing that he was worried about in the school itself was the laughable attempts on the headmaster's life. From a poisoned wine that was given to Ron instead, but had the added benefit of finally giving him the relationship he wanted with Hermione, to a cursed locket which was somehow gifted to Katie Bell. The year still ended in tragedy, however, when after Harry and Dumbledore recovered a locket that they assumed to be a horcrux, they noticed the dark mark floating over Hogwarts. When they arrived back at the astronomy tower where it was, Dumbledore ordered Harry to get under his cloak, and petrified him while Millicent Bulstrode strutted through the door. "Well, well, well. Looks like you finally decided to cooperate."

"Miss Bulstrode, I do not know what he has promised you, but I can help." It seemed to Harry like he was stalling, but stalling why? Or for what? "I can ensure you will be taken care of after his downfall, and I will try to make the courts go easy on your family if they find evidence tying them in to him."

"You're daft, old man. I'm here because I want to be, because I enjoy this." Harry struggled to get out of the spell that was holding him as Professor Snape came rushing through the door.

Dumbledore's eyes met him, and he said "Please, Severus."

The words _avada kedavra_ rang through the night along with a bolt of green. It struck the headmaster in the chest, and propelled him backwards off of the tower. While he could not move, Harry could hear a scream that sounded suspiciously like his own voice ringing in his head.

"What have you done?" Severus asked the young girl, who was licking her lips and moaning in pleasure.

"What have I done? I have just secured my family a spot in the future. I have just given myself a huge gift. _Ooh_ , that felt so _good!_ You just want what I have, don't you?" She twirled her wand lazily, then ran it up her body, causing her to shiver. "I will now have glory. I will be known as the woman who killed Albus Dumbledore, our lord's greatest enemy. You're just his potion boy. Hm, though the aurors are sure to arrive soon. I am headed off to the portkey he has hidden in the woods for whoever was successful. Hopefully we don't lose too many more, since a few of our friends were going to come through to play in the school. Then again, with Dumbledore out of the way, they'll all be pulled out of Azkaban soon. I am just not willing to be kissed before we can rule over the world. Ta!" With that, she left the tower, her hips swaying dangerously.

"You fool. Dumbledore asked me to be the one to. . . . Bah, what am I saying? If she wants to die for that foolish choice, so be it. _Finite incantatem_. _Colloportus._ " Harry thudded to the ground, and Professor Snape tracked the wracking sobs to his student. "Mr. Potter, you must get up. It is not safe here. Get to the dorms. As you go, get as many of your classmates as you can to go with you. While your club last year was looking for defence, the death eaters here will be looking to kill. Barricade yourselves in."

"What about you, Professor?"

"I will try to stay out of the way of both sides, and see how many death eaters I can stun by accident. Go, get to safety, and try to get your peers to do the same."

"Draco! Half of the Slytherins will be attacking the other half! What if he can't get to his dorm before the rest of them turn on him?"

"I am going to head that way now. It will do you no good to get yourself killed trying to help him. A lot of my students have been trained by their parents, and many of them would do their best to destroy you to gain favour."

"No way! I'm going with you! I'm not leaving him by himself!"

"He will not be by himself. He has friends who were in the club you and your friends so surreptitiously started last year, besides, my students do not keep their loyalties hidden. Draco and the others from dark families do not wish to follow the dark lord will not start anything. Once they hear what is going on, they will attempt to leave the common room and barricade themselves into one of the dorms. If they are attacked on their way to do so, the students who are on the fence will see it as treason and cowardice, and they will side with the students who follow you. Even if they are attacked, he will be safe once I arrive in the dungeons again."

"I don't care. I won't leave him alone."

"Mr. Potter, this is not up for discussion. Either you can go back to your dorm and help protect it against the death eaters who are filing into the castle, or I can stun you and leave you here under your cloak, and hope no one else finds you and drags you away as a prize. Which would you prefer?"

"Will you at least send me a message or something when he is safe?"

"It is not technically allowed, but if it will get you back to your common room, I will send him to you by floo once I have ensured that my students are all where they should be."

Harry glared at the professor for a minute. After losing his beloved mentor, he would not be able to stand losing Draco as well. Professor Snape seemed quite serious about stunning him, though, and Harry knew that if one of the death eaters somehow found him on the tower, there was almost no chance he would be rescued. Finally, he nodded. "Send him to me. I need him. I'll see what I can do to keep my housemates safe."

Professor Snape seemed to relax a tiny bit when Harry promised to cooperate. He unlocked the door, then walked through with Harry behind him. The unlikely allies fought their way to their goals, and the last few days of the year seemed to pass in a blur for Harry.

Shortly after the year ended, Ron's eldest brother got married, the ministry fell, and Hogwarts was closed, then re-opened under death eater control. The only bright spot was that Professor Snape was in charge. Harry and Hermione, both being prominently non-pureblood and wanted, stayed in Grimmauld for the first few weeks after school was out. Ron simply feigned illness to get out of going back to Hogwarts, and moved into Grimmauld as well. Draco told his mother to send elves out if they needed food or any sort of supplies that they needed after he refused to go back to the school so they would not end up caught by death eaters. The pair boarded themselves up while adding extra wards to the manor.

Against Dumbledore's wishes, Harry had included Draco in the plans to find horcruxes.. He reasoned that he was part of their group now, and that he could most definitely be trusted. Hermione had instantly agreed with the choice, since out of the entire school, he was likely to know more about the dark arts than anyone else. For the few weeks that they stayed in Grimmauld, the trio conversed with Draco quite frequently to try to decide where they would set up a base for hunting horcruxes. Grimmauld still had better wards, but it was also smaller, and they did not want the order members who were frequently rotating through to figure out what they were doing. In the end, they decided to use Malfoy Manor as their base since the manor only had Draco, his mother, and a bunch of house elves living in it. They also debated logistics. They had already broken Dumbledore's suggestion by allowing Draco to join them. They agreed that if they could only access an area that they assumed a horcrux was in by involving another order member that they would. It was still going to be used as a last resort, though, and they all hoped they would not need to.

"This is cosy. Really, it's like we've got all the comforts of home, along with some added dark relics." commented Ron one day shortly after they moved in while they were starting to pile up the research they had on the horcruxes. He had just tripped over a small box that was in the room they thought was cleared out. It took Draco fifteen minutes to get the room re-lit, and figure out how to vanish the cage that had suspended him in the middle of the room.

"Stuff it, Weasel. You're a guest here. I can always have you go back to the Burrow, or to Grimmauld if you'd like."

"What, and let you and Harry have all the fun while I'm separated from Hermione? Not on your life!"

"Ronald Bilius Weasley!" Hermione shrieked. "Our private life should be _staying private!_ "

"Ooh, someone's not going to get any for a while now. Ease up, Hermione, you know Harry and I are doing more than sleeping at night, so there's no sense in you being ashamed to admit you enjoy living with him. We're not his mum after all, neither of us will lecture you about how you need to be safe. You get pregnant, though, and you're not allowed to help us any longer."

Hermione sputtered for a few seconds. "I most certainly do not know that you and Harry are doing anything more than sleeping at night! At least nothing that _anyone_ would be embarrassed to walk in on!"

"Oh, give it a rest. You muggle-raised sorts are all the same. I won't get your precious Ronald in on this, but you can ask my mum _or_ his for that matter. Sex in the wizarding world is not looked down upon in the same way you prudes seem to. As long as you are fairly certain you will be staying with that person, since sometimes sex magic can be cast by accident, and it is _definitely_ a powerful sort, who cares? Harry enjoys having me call him by some muggle hero named 'Spock' while he calls me 'Captain' or 'James' while we pretend we are in outer space on some space star boat thing, and you enjoy having Ronald tie you up and claim ownership over you after he spanks you for disobeying him. What's the big deal?"

Ron was glad that Hermione was shrieking at Draco because he could not hold his mirth in any longer, and had to take a few moments to shake with the laughter he was barely able to keep silent. "How did you know about that? Were you. . . have you. . . ."

"One, you shouldn't leave your door open when you are having sex. Two, you aren't going to get into trouble for using magic here. Silencing charms are _very_ helpful."

Harry was rather embarrassed at their conversation as well, and cut in before Hermione decided to resort to actual violence at some point. "Erm, right then, guys. So we've got the fake locket. We need to find the real one, then figure out what the rest of these things are and get them destroyed so we can destroy Vol. . ."

"Don't say his name!"

"I have said his name for years, Draco."

"Did you ever figure out why everyone else is so afraid of saying it?"

"No?"

"In the last war, he put a taboo on it. Anyone who said it made themselves into a target. He somehow tied it into the mark so that death eaters could apparate in and kill or capture anyone who did. No sense risking him somehow being able to get through my wards with one."

"Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice." commented Hermione.

"What?"

Harry waved his hand. "It's a muggle thing. Anyway, so I can't say that anymore in case he's put another one on it, got it. We still need to figure out what else he has, and where. Then we need to get to those things, figure out a way to destroy them, and get to him. Maybe we could use the taboo when we get ready to."

"That's at least a plan. What do we have?"

"Two are gone. The diary that your dad gave to Ginny in our second year, and the ring which Dumbledore destroyed last year. We need to find the locket, apparently. Then we've got the diadem and the cup to find. Then Nagini, of course. I was told he was trying to make a record seventh on the night he murdered my family, but I have no idea what it would have been, or where it would have been kept." He rubbed his scar absently, noticing a faint ache in it. "Wish we knew the process of creating them, might make it a bit easier."

"All I know is that he has to fracture his soul to do it. Murder is the easiest way to do that, but unless he was actively trying to make one, the pieces should have just stayed there, only not really working right. It's why so many murderers are insane, or the going theory at least. The broken pieces shifting, and breaking up more are too unstable so it affects the rest of him as well. He split it too many times already, though." Draco said, watching Harry rub his scar with a frown on his face. "If I had to wager, given what we know about him, I'd bet something from Godric's Hollow _is_ a horcrux. Hopefully something that was not buried in rubble or taken from there."

"Great. Well, we should still take out the others first. Except the snake, that one needs to be last, because he keeps her with him all the time."

"Right. Where should we start?" asked Ron.

"Kreacher." replied Hermione.

"What?" came a chorus of men's voices.

'Kreacher. He had that locket when we were cleaning out Grimmauld. He scooped it up and kept it with him. We could see if that is it or not."

"Regulus Arcturus Black. My other cousin." Draco piped in. "It would fit the R.A.B. signature in the locket."

The four exchanged glances before Harry spoke again. "So how do we get it from him to see if it is the real on or not?"

"We can pay Sirius a visit." replied Hermione.

"Let's go." He walked to the floo and grabbed some powder. The others followed, and within a few moments, they found themselves being invited to stay a while at Grimmauld while Sirius started discussing dinner plans.

"Wait, Sirius, can you order Kreacher to do something for us?" asked Ron.

"What do you need?"

"To trade him something, if he's still got it at least."

"Okay. . . this should be interesting. Kreacher, come here."

There was a pop, then an angry house elf started to speak. "Oh, poor Kreacher. Having to deal with blood traitors and mudbloods in his mistress's house. What can Kreacher be doing for his traitorous master today?"

"You can do what these four ask of you, or you can be hexed for it." Sirius growled.

"I'm sure that won't be necessary, Sirius." said Harry. "Kreacher, do you have a locket that looks like this one?"

Kreacher's eyes got wide as he saw the locket in Harry's hand. "Kreacher has a locket like that, yes." he said, reaching out as if he wished to touch the one Harry held.

"Sirius, you can't tell anyone about this, okay? It's my mission."

"Okay. Do you want me to stay or leave?"

"If you swear you will not try to do anything foolish when you learn what we are doing, you can stay."

Sirius pulled his wand. "I swear it on my magic." he said. His wand sparked.

Harry nodded. "I need you to get that locket, Kreacher, and bring it here."

"It is my master's locket! I cannot do that!"

"Kreacher. . ." Sirius started.

"No, Sirius, just wait. Kreacher, you've seen this one before, haven't you?"

The elf nodded, tears filling his eyes. "Master Regulus was a good boy. He was a good _Black!_ He made that locket, then he had Kreacher go with him and help him drink that vile poison. Then he said I had to destroy this one. I failed my master, though, I can not destroy it, but I will not give it up!"

"Kreacher," Hermione tempted, "what if we give you this one in exchange for it? That way we can find a way to destroy the one that Regulus wanted you to, and you can have the one your master made?"

Kreacher's eyes grew wide again, then narrowed. "But why would a mudblood help Kreacher?"

"Don't call her that, Kreacher." Sirius warned, getting a glare in return.

"You loved your master, didn't you?"

Kreacher nodded and started to cry. "Yes. Kreacher loved his master very much."

"We are trying to do what he was. To destroy these things, because they are evil, and are keeping the one who poisoned him alive." She heard Sirius gasp behind her as he put it together. "If you let us have that one, we will destroy it, and we will give you this one so you can always have a piece of your master with you."

"Oh. Oh, Kreacher would like that very much."

"Will you get the other one for us, please?"

Kreacher vanished, then reappeared a moment later with a locket in his hand. Though the two looked identical, Harry could feel an aura of evil radiating off of the one Kreacher was holding. "That's the real one alright. Here, Kreacher, this one is yours."

"Oh, Kreacher likes you. Kreacher likes a mudblood. Kreacher's mistress would be so disappointed. But you are nice to Kreacher. Master was always nice to Kreacher." The bitter old elf sounded wistful.

"Wait, so if I start saying please, you'll listen to me more?" Sirius asked.

Kreacher nodded. "You has always been nasty to poor Kreacher. Always demanding, and shouting, and threatening. Master Regulus was nice. He asked, and he thanked, like this. . . ."

"Muggleborn?" Ron supplied.

"This muggleborn." Kreacher had a bit of a hard time getting the term out of his mouth. "She is nice. Harry Potter is nice, though Kreacher doubted Dobby when he told him so." Kreacher slipped Regulus's locket around his neck, grabbed it with a gnarled old hand, and sighed.

"Fine. If I try to act nicer to you, will you quit acting like such an arse?" Sirius asked.

"Kreacher will listen to you. Kreacher is belonging to the most ancient and noble house of Black, and you is its head. Kreacher is not having to like his master if his master is being nasty to Kreacher."

"Huh, now we know where Draco gets his imperiousness at least." Ron whispered, earning himself a glare from Draco.

"Fine. If you listen to me without the sarcasm and nasty comments, I shall endeavor to be nicer to you. You are dismissed, Kreacher, and" the words nearly caught in his throat as he said them, "thank you for your help."

Kreacher bowed lower than Harry had ever seen him bow before, lower than he figured the old elf had the physical capability to really, the locket's chain pooling on the floor around him, then disapparated.

"He made _horcruxes?_ And I am assuming this means that old _fool_ sent you four after them?"

"Three, actually, I was not invited." sniffed Draco. Ron waved his arm at Hermione, an eyebrow raised as if to say 'you see?' causing Hermione to have to stifle a giggle of her own, despite how serious the situation was. "Harry told me, however, and I am going to help however I can. I have a list of items at the manor in mind to try out on it to destroy it."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Sure," said Harry. "Any ideas where he'd hide anything? We know one was with Draco's dad, and one was in his grandfather's ruined shack. This one was in a cave where he tortured muggle kids while in the orphanage he grew up in. The snake is one, it's always with him. We know he intended to make his last the night my mum and dad died, but not from what."

"Places that mean something to him, then, or with followers of his. Lucius and Bellatrix were his most faithful, try somewhere of hers. Hogwarts was a very important place to him, it's where he started to get power after the orphanage. Try there as well, perhaps? No idea where they'd hide it, though."

"Maybe the vault for Aunt Bellatrix. That's where my father stored the diary, and so it is likely where she would put it as well. The ministry cannot access them, so while they assumed that nothing would happen to the power they held, if anything happened, it would still be safely hidden away. What about the Room of Requirement? It changes, right? Maybe it can have stuff hidden in it too?"

"You're brilliant, Draco. How are we going to get into the vault, though?"

"Harry, do you not remember our second year?" chided Hermione.

"Oh. Polyjuice! We just need some hair."

"Polyjuice? When did you use that?" Sirius perked up at the question as well.

"Ah, we drugged Crabbe and Goyle and used polyjuice to sneak into your common room. We thought you were the heir of Slytherin."

Sirius barked out a laugh while saying that Harry was taking after his dad while Draco sighed. "It just figures. . . . Severus tends to have the ingredients around for emergencies or other potions. We can have someone go in to collect it, and search the room while we are at it."

"Great idea, my love. I can use the cloak."

"Why is it you, Harry? We know what to look for. Send one of us, we're expendable." offered Ron.

"What? You aren't expendable!"

"Yes we are. You have to kill him, we just have to help. He couldn't have set a trap there because of the wards. We know it'll be the cup or the diadem. We can get in, find whichever it is, then sneak into Gringotts. If any of us get caught by the death eaters at the school, we won't be making it so the bastard won't ever die. I can do this without any trouble."

"I hate you for making me agree with you, Ron. Be careful. I'll let you use the cloak. Should we floo your godfather first for the ingredients, Draco?"

"I'll do that now, you three go back to the manor to grab the cloak for Ron."

When Draco flood back to the manor, it was to a huge fight. Hermione was crying in the corner of the entry, and Harry and Ron were. . . well, given the red faces, and body language, he was assuming they were shouting from behind a privacy charm. "How long did it take you to put that up?" he asked.

"Not very. Harry summoned his cloak, then decided he was going too. He told Ron they would be back quicker if both of them were looking, and that it would be safer if there was a second set of eyes. Ron thought Harry was implying he couldn't find it himself. Then Harry tried to just say it would be safer with someone to watch his back, and Ron got angry. I know _why_. They're both afraid that not all of us will come out of this alive, but we all are, aren't we? I just couldn't listen to it. For that matter, I've had my face buried so I wouldn't even have to watch them up until you came through the floo."

"Hm. I can fix this. Or at least get their attention off of each other." He cast _aguamenti_ at them, and asked Hermione to cast a cooling charm on the water so it would give them both a shock to their system. He shivered as the water hit Harry, and Harry's skin became goosebumped, but the spells had the intended effect of stopping both of them.

Ron yelled at Hermione and Draco, and Hermione's eyes widened. "Oh, guess I should get rid of that." She dismissed the charm, and let Harry and Ron whine at the two of them.

"You were scaring her, you dolts." Draco said. "No, Ron, you are not expendable, but no, Harry, you should not go. My godfather will make sure nothing happens to him, and it won't take half the time if you are bumping into each other every few minutes. Let him go. He wants to prove himself."

Harry grumbled a bit, but nodded. He picked up the cloak from the table he had dropped it on and stormed off to get dry clothing. Ron rolled his eyes, and cast a charm to dry his. "I'll be back soon. I won't let them catch me. Make sure he doesn't kill himself while I'm gone, will you?" With that, he walked to the floo, tossed some powder into it, and stepped in.

It was a matter of a few nerve-wracked hours for Draco, Harry, and Hermione before the foursome was looking at the beautiful crown that was sitting next to a locket. "So that's two, and the potion is cooking. Draco, what do you have that you think we could destroy these things with?" Hermione asked.

"We've got a few destructive artefacts that could possibly work. I collected them while Ron was out." He summoned a box with a large variety of objects in it, and they tried the various things on it. From items that would explode, or cause a spell as deadly as fiendfyre, though more contained, to ones that would cause frost. From ones that would wither away anything related to life to ones that would cause corrosion. Nothing worked.

"How did you get rid of the other two?" Draco finally asked, frustrated.

"We didn't get rid of the ring, Dumbledore did. I stabbed the locket with a basilisk fang."

"Where on earth did you find one of those?" Draco asked, aghast.

"The Chamber of Secrets, more second year stuff. Do you suppose it would still have venom?"

"Yes! For Merlin's sake, Harry, the thing might still have usable potions ingredients as well!"

"Should we ask your godfather to go with us, then? Maybe he can help?"

"Yes. I'll contact him again, give me a moment." Draco scrambled away, eager to share the potential discovery of free rare ingredients with his godfather.

Another member of their ever-expanding group later, Harry, Draco, and Headmaster Snape walked through Hogwarts after curfew. The headmaster seemed to walk alone, while Harry and Draco hid under their cloak. Draco held a large box with ingredient-gathering supplies, and containers. When they entered the chamber, they saw that some form of magic had caused the room to ice over after its secrets had been revealed, and that as a result, the basilisk was an icy lump in the middle, where Harry had left its body.

"Just as ugly as ever. . . ." he muttered as Draco and Severus' eyes lit up. They worked as a group to use small warming spells and thaw the creature, then Draco and his godfather carefully dissected it, storing all of its parts in various jars for future use.

"And this is a jar of its venom, contained in a way that will let us use a fang sort of like a quill, only we'll stab with it." said Draco proudly. "We can kill them easily with these things."

"Great. Let's get rid of the two that are at the manor, then, and worry about Gringotts when the potion is ready. Thank you for your help, Severus."

"You're welcome. Be careful on the way out, and thank you for the basilisk parts. They should come in handy with my experimenting."

"Why bother? I mean, I know you and Draco started drooling over the prospect of it, but aren't they extinct, or nearly so?"

"There is a large black market out there, Mr. Potter, not to mention good suppliers who can get the parts legitimately, though at a greater cost. Dragons are farmed in Romania, basilisks in a few smaller countries. Again, I thank you both. Get some rest, and destroy those things as quickly as you can. I wish for things to get back to normal, and for Minerva to take the spot that I was commanded to take, soon."

After another month had passed, the locket and the diadem had been destroyed. The latter became a gift for Luna, after some minor repairs had been completed on it. The lot planned to give it to her after the dark lord's death, as she and her father seemed to be the only people they knew who would care for it.

They also fought over going to Godric's Hollow. "We know it has to be there, though!" claimed Harry. "It is Halloween in two weeks. We could make it a trip there, then and I could say goodbye to my parents properly while we were at it. Then perhaps see what of the home could be salvaged. . . ."

"We do not. We just suspect that it is. While I appreciate that you would like to go on a significant day, he would expect that. My godfather has told us that he has set up in the Goyle home for now, and is not venturing out unless he feels he can gain a good deal from it. Let's go on some random day with no meaning so he will not have it watched very well. We sneak in, see what we can find, and get out. We can visit your parents as often as you'd like after this is over, but it is one of the places he will be keeping an eye on. At least if we follow your plan and go on the day when he will be gloating over his plan to kill you going partially his way, and expecting you to be there as a brokenhearted mess."

"And he won't be watching the house itself? At least not now?" asked Hermione, hoping to avoid the awkwardness that came when your best friends were fighting around you..

"Yes, but no. He knows what we would think. You all said you would like to visit the grave first, spend time there, then go to the house. It's a Gryffindor way of thinking, not that there is anything wrong with that, but he won't be watching the house itself, he'll watch the graveyard. If we go under the cloak, we can get in, cast disillusionment charms on ourselves, and search in relative peace. He might get some sort of warning of it, but we will have been able to collect what we need and get out before he could get his followers out there."

"I hate to agree with the ferret, but he's right, Harry." remarked Ron. "We should do what he says. When you've gotten him dead, then we can go back. Your parents will probably be happier to hear from you if you say you've got him dead than if you go to say you're in mortal danger anyway."

Harry sighed. "Let's go now, then. We can get the potion later." They had found some of Bellatrix's hair thanks to Narcissa. Having not expected to be chased out, none of the death eaters who had stayed at the manor had had time or thought to vanish any items or hair left behind.

Harry's friends sighed, but followed him as he got his cloak, and apparated the four of them to the house he should have grown up in. They stayed still for a few minutes, listening to nothing, waiting for death eaters to appear. After a time, when none had, Harry cast a charm on the four of them, took off his cloak, and walked to the house. It had been gorgeous at one time. The front still looked as if it were livable even. It was only the overgrown bushes and peeling paint that gave away the thought that its residents no longer had a place inside. Harry circled the building and saw that one of the rooms on the second floor had been blown out. "I'll start there." he whispered.

The four searched the house from top to bottom, and found nothing. A few trinkets, of course, to take back with them for Harry, but nothing of value. When they had finished, Hermione, Ron, and Draco found Harry sitting in his old room. He had discovered a way to make the snitches on the walls activate, and was sitting with his back against his crib, watching them flit around the room.

He did not look at them as he spoke. "This is what I always saw when the dementors got near. I was here. Well, in there." He pointed behind him. "My mum was right here." He touched the floor gently, as if he was touching his mother herself for the first time in his memory. "He came in through the doorway you are now moving away from, and stood there." He pointed at a spot that seemed to be darker than the rest of the floor. "I never heard _him_ , but I could always feel my scar start to ice over first, and I could hear my mum screaming when the dementors were near. She was begging for him to spare me. She didn't care if she was hurt, she just wanted me safe. I had everything here. A loving mum and dad. A normal amount of toys. This is the broomstick Sirius got for me." He pulled up a child's play broom, which was weathered and nearly falling apart.

Draco sat next to him and latched onto his hand, not forgetting that the first time they spoke as soul mates, Harry had done something similar for him.

"I had magic here. I had my life here, _mine._ Not what the Dursleys wanted for me, but what I could do myself. Even as a baby, I could move the snitches. They were created so I could amuse myself by moving them around the room. A baby's first spell sort of thing. I've heard Sirius talking about them." To demonstrate, he sent the lot of them onto one wall, where they spun around before flying out to the various walls again. "They loved me. They wanted me to stay safe, and this trip was a waste. There's nothing here."

"Harry. . . how are you connected to him?" Draco asked, fear lacing his voice.

"What do you mean?"

'It's through your scar, right? How does that work?"

"No one knows. It just does. I can see him, and I can use some of his abilities, like parseltongue."

"What are you thinking, Draco?" asked Hermione.

"What was the prophecy again? After the bit about him marking Harry as his equal?"

"Either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives." recited Hermione.

"And that's it? Exactly word for word that is it?"

"Yes, why?"

" _Fuck!_ " Draco hit the floor, causing the weathered wood to creak and a cloud of dust to fly up.

"What the hell, Draco?" Harry asked, jumping away as he came a bit out of the trance he was in.

"When we get the cup, we need to keep it around for a while. At least until you have another vision."

"Um, why?"

"It might be different, since it's not alive, but we need to see if it reacts somehow."

"What are you getting at, Draco?" asked Hermione cautiously, eyeing Harry as she did.

"It's him. Don't you see? There's nothing here that it could even possibly be, but Harry was what the catalyst was. It's either the entire bloody house, though we would all be feeling the taint of it, or it is his scar. He was _marked_ by him, and either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives. If someone kills the dark lord, but Harry is still as he is now, he can still come back. Because _Harry_ , his equal, the one he marked with a piece of his soul is still here."

Harry was stunned. "Wait, it's me? So I have to die? I have to let him kill me?"

"Wait a minute." said Hermione. "If _we_ kill you, he might not have to."

Draco growled at her.

"No, just listen. You said it again yourself, to be killed, they must die at the hand of the _other._ If we kill him, he is not dying by another. It should just kill the horcrux, right? With the others, it just destroyed the bit of soul that was in it, not the item itself. Or at least it didn't destroy it beyond repair."

"And if you are wrong, Granger?"

"If you are right, we keep that monstrosity around forever."

"Which of you could stomach it?" Harry asked, sounding dejected.

" _What?_ " cried all three of his companions.

"Draco, Hermione, you are both right, and it has to be done. We know what the others are. You guys can figure out what to do after."

"What if he's wrong, though?" asked Ron.

"That's why I said we need to get the cup and keep it around first." Draco snapped. "I don't just want to murder him, I _love_ him!" The group paused. They knew Draco and Harry were in love, and frequently heard Harry telling Draco he loved him, but this was the first time Ron or Hermione had heard Draco mention that he returned the feelings. While Harry knew that he adored Draco, and that Draco adored him as well, his heart seemed to become a bit steadier after hearing Draco tell his best friends how he felt. Ron looked on at Draco with an expression on his face that said he was finally accepting him all the way, while Hermione became a bit mitsy-eyed at the confession.

"An easier solution. I can speak with the snakes around the manor. One of you try holding the cup and speaking with one. If you can, I'm a winner. Or a loser. Whatever"

"We're still keeping it around until such a time presents itself that you have another vision. We are not going to do this without at least two confirmations."

"Fine. Let's go, then."

A creak from downstairs made them freeze. Ron was closest to the door and looked out it. "I see an old lady. She doesn't seem to have noticed us yet. She looks creepy, though. She must have heard us fussing about in here."

"I want to look." said Hermione.

"No!" whispered Draco. "Polyjuice. Whoever it is is either a nosy neighbour, or is someone we do not want to run into. Back to the manor, now."

The stairs began to slowly creak. Hermione and Ron glanced at each other, shrugged, then apparated out. "Do you hear her? I hear someone saying hello. It's faint, though."

Draco grabbed Harry and side along apparated him. "What the hell, Draco?" Harry asked as soon as they were sitting back on the manor floor.

"I couldn't hear it. At all."

"What are you two talking about?" asked Ron.

"He heard that old lady speaking as she was coming up the stairs. I didn't hear anything, just the stairs and a faint hissing noise that hadn't been there before It started when you said you started hearing the old lady speaking."

"Hissing? Like a snake? What if He somehow disguised Nagini to send her after us? We could have gotten rid of her! It would have been one less thing that we needed to do, Draco!"

"No, we need to do her last, remember? If we take her out, He may try to make another one to replace her, and if he hides that, we'll never get them all." Draco spoke patiently, as if Harry was a small child.

"Fine, when are we going to Gringotts?" Harry was glaring at his boyfriend, and the words came out as a snarl.

"Harry, be reasonable, please. We all agreed. Nagini last."

"Aside from me."

"We probably can't kill you." Draco's face fell as he said that, and Harry crumpled. He should have know something like this would happen. The rest of the hunt had been so easy up until then. Not to mention his life. He went from the neglected kid to someone who felt like he had a real family for once. He had Draco, the man he adored, Hermione and Ron, the best friends a guy could have, and Sirius, Molly and Arthur as parental figures who actually loved him. Even Narcissa and Headmaster Snape seemed to be coming around and treating him well. Then this? While he did not want to kill anyone, aside from the occasion when he thought too much about his parents, and felt he would enjoy wringing the dark psycho's neck more than he would actually enjoy being free of him, he knew he must. But now? Now it seemed as if no matter what he did, life was determined to get in his way and make sure he would never have a happily ever after like in the stories.

"I'm sorry, Draco, it's just a lot to take in."

"I can't lose you. But I might have to. You can't die on me, Harry."

Ron and Hermione left the room to allow the two to be alone to speak. "I'm going now." Hermione said to Ron.

"What? What if something happens?"

"I can get back in a couple hours. Just like you with the diadem. Trust me."

The next morning an exhausted looking Harry and Draco came downstairs to eat. After Narcissa fussed over the pair, they both downed their breakfast without saying a word, then followed Ron and Hermione into the room they were using as a horcrux hunting base. "Good news and bad news, mate."

"Good first."

Ron shoved a cup with an engraved badger on it in front of Harry who hissed. "What? You. . . when did you get this? Was it here?"

"I did it last night." Hermione admitted. "I wanted to get it over with. For the bad news, I can speak with snakes when I'm holding it. Ron can as well."

"Fuck me." said Harry.

"We should still wait until you have another vision. Severus said they have a mission planned. . . well, it was yesterday, I think, to capture muggles to torment. If you see anything, and it reacts, we know a bit more."

"So what do I do?"

"Let me take your mind off of things and then try to sleep?"

That evening, Ron and Hermione rushed to Draco and Harry's room to see Draco trying desperately to wake Harry up. He looked at them fearfully when they came in, then at the cup they were holding. It was glowing black. He started to cry at that moment. "Why? Why is this happening? We were happy. He was starting to get a good life, finally, like he deserved, I was starting to get one like I did not, and we were _happy_ together!"

"You're talking like he's dead, Draco. There is still the part about one having to kill the other. If he's willing, he may not die."

"Just do it, then." whispered Harry. "Get it over with."

"You're awake? Harry, are you okay?"

"I take it it reacted?"

"It was glowing black. It was gross." supplied Ron.

"Do it, then. Grab the fangs. Destroy it, then stab me. I'm willing, like Draco said, if it takes that."

"But we can't kill him. Only you can."

"Which is why I won't die. Just hit the scar."

"I can't do it." Draco said. "I can't just sit here and let us do something that will likely kill you."

"Draco, he'll kill everything. Just get it over with now. Then you guys can plan the rest of it without me if you need to."

Ron set the cup down, and a few moments later there was a hideous screeching sound as Hermione pierced the cup with a fang.

When the noise faded, everyone looked at Harry. "Does anyone have any suggestions?" Ron asked. "Hermione? Draco? You're both smart. You guys have something, right?"

Hermione handed Draco a fang with venom in it. "Draco? We all know that love effects magic. You'll be the safest choice to try this. I. . . I just can't think of any other way that it might work. Draco? Please tell me you have something."

Harry knew his friends were all in shock over the thought that he was a horcrux, but was still surprised about their lack of reaction. He figured it was shock on all of their parts, and decided to push the issue before the stunned silence could turn into months of planning that would end up going nowhere. "Draco, I will myself if I have to, but I'd rather you do it. Please." He said.

"I can't."

"Yes you can. You won't kill me, you'll just kill part of that monster. Do it. Please."

Draco reached a trembling hand out and grabbed the fang. "If this doesn't work, I am stabbing myself with it next." he said.

Harry had no doubt that he was serious. He and Draco were ridiculously close, and he knew that if anything happened to Draco he would be broken. That if had caused what had hurt him? His only thought was that he would do the exact same thing. "Then it had better work, because you aren't going anywhere." Harry replied.

Draco shuddered, then carefully leaned down to kiss Harry. He concentrated on pouring all of what he felt for him into the kiss, and while still felt silly, he also tried to focus his love on him as well. Anything to avoid the fang actually killing Harry along with the horcrux that was residing inside him. After waiting until neither of them could stand it any longer, Draco found Harry's scar with the fang, and pierced the skin with it.

Immediately, Harry bucked on the bed. Draco jumped back, trying to keep the fang as far away from his own flesh as possible as Harry began to scream. "Harry, oh no, what have I done?" he whispered. He flung the fang away from him, and grabbed Harry's hand. "Harry, _Harry_ , you're stronger than he is! You were stronger when you were a baby, and this is only a piece of him. Fight him off, Harry!" Harry tried to focus on Draco's voice, but the pain of the venom became too much for him, and he soon slipped into sweet oblivion with his three best friends watching on.

A soft moan was all Draco needed to hear before jumping from the chair he'd been slumped into next to the bed to Harry's side. "Can you hear me?" he whispered.

"Draco?" Harry asked, his voice barely as loud as Draco's had been.

Draco sobbed. "I was so worried. I am so sorry that I hurt you. I am so glad that you are _okay."_

Harry gripped the hand that was stroking his as best he could, opened his eyes, and immediately slammed them shut again as the dim light was too much for him. "How long was I out?"

"If you had slept for a few more hours, it would have been three weeks. Seemed that you were really fighting with the venom. I. . . we. . . you looked like you died. You stopped breathing." Draco shuddered. "I completely lost it. I thought you were gone. But Ron and Hermione held me back so I couldn't go find that stupid fang, and then you started screaming again, and thrashing around like you were under the cruciatus curse, and then went still again, but you were breathing. And then your scar started to ooze. It was venom from the basilisk mixed with blood and. . . something. We were siphoning it off and vanishing it. I hope I never see anything like that again as long as I live. Enough of that, though, can I get you anything?"

"Some water, maybe? Do you have a straw, so I don't have to move for it?"

A few seconds later, Harry was able to take a couple of sips of cold water. He sighed. "Did it work, then? Obviously I'm still alive, but did we get it?"

"I don't know. I don't think we will know unless we figure out some way to test it."

"Once I can open my eyes without feeling like I'm being blinded, will you bring me something shaped like a snake? When you guys were holding the cup, you could speak parseltongue, but after it was destroyed, you couldn't, right?"

"Right."

"So if I can't speak to snakes any longer, I'd reckon that is a good indication that we got it."

Fortunately, it turned out, the group did not need to find a second way to kill the horcrux. Harry could no longer speak with snakes. They contacted Headmaster Snape, and asked him to keep them in the loop if the dark lord was to try to send a vision to Harry. On the long road to his recovery, they should have had three visions, and Harry missed all three of them completely, he did not even have a twinge of a bad dream on the nights he was supposed to get them. The group decided not to tell Harry that the last one of the visions he was supposed to have received was of the Dursleys being murdered The dark lord figured if he was not caring about the other visions, murdering the family the wizarding world still thought had spoiled him as a child would. The fun was to be for giving three recruits their marks, and letting a trio of older students try out a few freshly learned curses. From what they were told, the dark lord was so furious at the failure that he had destroyed the brains of all three of the new recruits, what little Vincent Crabbe had, and all of what Georgina and an older Slytherin who had been among the students expelled for having the mark two years before by using the cruciatus curse on them.

While the group was thrilled they did not have to try to find another way to kill Harry, they were not thrilled at the condition he was left in after the horcrux was destroyed. Though the venom did not kill him, it left him in an extremely weakened state. It was a full month after Harry awakened before they got anywhere with his recovery.

"You have been in bed for a _month_ , Harry! A month! I know it is not for a lack of trying, since I am still finding you lying on the floor after having tried to do something yourself if all of us leave the room, but you still cannot walk. You have trouble sitting up by yourself, and you must use pillows to hold yourself up if you wish to sit up for longer than five minutes. You are shaky. You have nasty headaches that are not related to curses, well, at least not visions or curses we have recently cast on you. You are having nightmares more nights than not. You can barely stay awake for two or three hours at a time. You can barely _eat,_ or at least barely keep it down! You. Need. Help." snarled Draco.

"Really, we should just leave it, what are we going to do anyway? I am trying! I've gotten a bit better, haven't I?" argued Harry. "I couldn't sit up at all the first week. Whenever I tried, it felt like I was getting stabbed again."

Hermione and Ron had watched the duo argue for about fifteen minutes, having entered the room just after Harry had yet again lost his lunch, a very weak broth mixed with a nutrition potion soaked into some bread. "You've also lost a lot of weight because you can't eat, Harry." Hermione said. Draco puffed up, and looked vindicated that she was taking his side. "We need you healthy. He's been doing more attacks lately, he'll get desperate for a reaction for you soon. We need you healthy so you can take him out when the time comes."

"What would you even have me do? I can't go to St. Mungo's! They'd catch me. They run the entire government, including it!"

"No, Harry, your begging will not work this time. I know you are scared of us being found out, we all are, for that matter, but you. Need. Help. We personally know the headmaster of Hogwarts. Said headmaster has a healer working for him who is in the order with him. Said healer has a vested interest in you because you were a beloved student in her wing so often. Said _headmaster_ also has a vested interest in you because you are the one who is going to take out the dark lord, giving him his freedom, and because you make his godson extremely happy. But that could just be me having wild ideas because my soul mate has been lying nearly invalid in bed for over a month now after being in a coma for three weeks!" Draco sat back, his face an icy mask. Harry winced. He had taken to showing emotion around the trio, and the fact that he was not giving anything away indicated that he was thoroughly enraged with him.

"Fine. Give Headmaster Snape a note of some sort." He sighed and leaned back.

A few moments later, the bed dipped, and Draco carefully snuggled close to Harry. Ron rolled his eyes behind them and sent his patronus to Headmaster Snape. "Harry, I do love you, you know that, right? I hate seeing you hurt."

"Then just stay right there. It feels better when you're touching me." he mumbled back.

"Fine. Until Madame Pomfrey gets here, I will stay with you." He thought he heard a sleepy word of thanks in return, but could not be sure, because when he pulled back, Harry was out yet again.

When Harry awoke again, it was to Madame Pomfrey giving him a stern look. "Mr. Potter, you are not even going to Hogwarts this year and you are injuring yourself. What will I do with you? What happened this time to leave you in such a state?"

When she was met with silence, Harry glared at Hermione and Draco. "Oh, come on, you two are the brains and you don't have anything?"

"I want the truth, Mr. Potter, not a lie. If I get inaccurate information, I could kill you if a spell is inconclusive about why you are in this state. A person with Dragon Pox, for example, would react violently to the fireweed root in quite a few potions that heal common cold symptoms." She glared at the four.

"Well, I might have gotten a large dose of basilisk venom. . . ." Harry muttered.

Though he would have sworn that Madame Pomfrey was made of stone, she looked shocked. "You _what?"_

"Maybe. Possibly. Just a little. Or, well, okay, maybe a lot. But I wasn't bitten. Sort of. Mostly!"

She held up a hand. "Mr Potter, how, exactly, did you find yourself in the company of a basilisk, and how in the world were you unfortunate enough to find yourself envenomated by one without being bitten by it?" They all exchanged glances around her. "The _truth_ , Mr. Potter, or whoever would like to explain."

"We, ah, can't say the exact circumstances, though I promise that if you still wish to hear it after this is all over, I will tell you. It has to do with the mission I was left by Dumbledore. I ended up being stabbed by a fang which had been dipped in venom while I was doing something in order to complete it."

She sighed. "Okay, then. What symptoms are you having?" After they described the problems Harry was having, they noticed a twitch in her eye. "You have been fighting with this for a month? Over one and a half if you include being unconscious for that three weeks? Once again, I find it incredible that you are alive."

Careful to be thorough, Madame Pomfrey spent the better part of an hour casting various diagnosis spells on him, then took another to cast healing charms and write up a potion list. "Interestingly enough, your body seems to have gotten rid of all of them venom. I have never read of a person being able to do that before. Mr. Malfoy, is your potion garden growing well? I know you always bragged about it at school." He nodded. His first act upon being named head of the Malfoy family had been to plant it again, replacing the one his father had destroyed. "Good. I will send a few of these to you, and you and Miss Granger can brew the ones you will need after you use those, I am sure. Bed rest, not that I think it will matter much for a few days, for a month, preferably two, then you need to start building up your endurance for little things again. Send me a patronus if you get even slightly worse."

With that, she turned and left. "I'll go grab some plants from my garden. You two can watch over him for now, right?" Draco asked.

"I don't need watching over." Harry protested.

"How many times in the last week have we found you on the floor, mate?" asked Ron. "I'll stay here if you two both want to go to make it faster." Hermione nodded, and the pair walked out of the room.

It was a long month for Harry. At first the potions and schedule Madame Pomfrey had him on left him feeling like he was not half dead, which he was grateful for. Towards the end, he was begging Draco to allow him out of bed. When he was finally cleared to start walking around on his own again, he earned himself an extra week of rest by overdoing things. The next time he was allowed up, he was quite a bit more careful. "No sense in bringing Madame Pomfrey's wrath down on me yet again." he griped, while trying to take things easily.

Harry spent as much time as his friends would allow working to get back into shape. Or at least something resembling good health. It took him until early April before he finally started to feel good again, and was able to fly or cast moderately powered spells without feeling tired afterwards.

Late in April, Headmaster Snape sent them an urgent message. He said that while they had been left up for an illusion of safety, he had been ordered to take down the wards at Hogwarts on the second of May in an attempt to draw Harry out into the open since none of his other plans had worked thus far.

It worked. The morning before the invasion was set to take place, Hermione messaged anyone with a DA coin to ask them to watch out for Nagini. "If you see her," she wrote, "take her out! She will be insanely hard to kill, but it is impossible to kill him without her being dead!" When one of the club wrote back to ask if the dark lord could possess her, she let them think that was the answer. No sense in endangering that many more people, or having anyone figure out what was going on and speak to the wrong person about it.

On the first, Harry, Draco, Hermione, and Ron went to the castle, and figured they would stay in the Room of Requirement. Upon arriving, they were swamped with a group of DA members who were not able to stay far enough away from the curses in the castle and had taken up residence in the room to avoid being cursed or, as was going to be the case with the muggleborn students the next day, killed.

On the second, Harry and the older students who followed him walked to the front of the castle to wait on the front steps. A large group of order members had been flood in for the confrontation. A benefit to the deputy headmistress being told of plans, at the dark lord's orders, was that she was able to alert them without tipping off the wrong people that their former spy with the light was not actually on the side he was thought to be on. Everyone in the order was told to go after Nagini if they saw her, and were ordered by the group leaders to keep the castle and the students safe at all cost.

When the wards were lowered, a murmur of nervousness went up through the crowd surrounding the entrance to the school. There were at least two death eaters to every order or DA member present, and quite a few of them had family members who were wearing masks. In the middle of the crowd of death eaters, a group of them carried an ornate throne. From the number of them it took to carry it, and the obvious strain they were under, it appeared they were not allowed to use magic to help them. The throne itself looked to be made of gold, and was covered in gems and small human bones. Atop it sat the dark lord himself, and curled around him was his snake.

"Harry Potter!" he announced, when they got close and he held up his hand to stop. "I had thought you to be a coward! Or that you had killed yourself in cowardice to spare yourself the visions I have been sending you for months."

A few of the more powerful wizards, none on the dark lord's side, Harry noted, moved as they felt a small current go through them when Headmaster Snape and Headmistress McGonagall reactivated the wards.

"I was trying to figure out why you are so hard to kill. And working out how to get rid of you for good this time." taunted Harry.

"Ah, but you cannot, you arrogant child! I am the master of part of death's power itself! Millicent Bulstrode, come forth!" Millicent walked towards him, head held high, every inch of her displaying arrogance. The dark lord stepped down from his throne and sent Nagini off to be ready to strike. "This young lady has ensured my victory! She, and she alone, of my young followers was strong and able enough to destroy the most annoying wizard standing in my way. Not even _you_ , you insolent whelp, could hold that title! This is the young woman who defeated Albus Dumbledore himself! I am so proud of you, my dear!" He stepped forward to hug her.

"Do it. Do it!" cackled his second in command, Bellatrix, from the sidelines.

The dark lord showed a feral grin and, while still hugging Millicent, yelled _avada kedavra!_ " casting the curse at her back and letting her fall. Before she hit the ground, he cast a spell to make her body float as if her cloak was on a hanger so the school could see the astonished look that appeared on her face when she noticed the wand being pressed into her back. "You see, it is a funny story. Dumbledore had possession of the elder wand."

"That's just a fairytale!" yelled one student, while a few voices could be heard asking what that was.

"It is not often that I get to defeat one of my rivals, but it has put me into a good mood, so I shall enlighten you." he said. "Or at least I shall have one of them do so for me." He snapped his fingers, and one of the people who had been carrying his throne walked forward and began to speak without further prompting.

"There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight when they came to a river too deep to ford and too treacherous to swim. Learned in the magical arts, the brothers conjured a bridge and proceed to cross. Feeling cheated of his due, Death appeared and cunningly pretended to congratulate them and award them with gifts of their own choosing. The eldest brother, a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence, and so Death took a branch from a nearby tree and fashioned the Elder Wand. The second brother, an arrogant man, choose to further humiliate death, and asked for the power to recall others from Death. So Death took a stone from the riverbank and crafted the Resurrection Stone. The third and youngest brother, who was the most humble and wise, did not trust Death and asked for something to enable him to go forth without Death being able to follow. So Death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Invisibility Cloak.

The three brothers took their prizes and soon went their separate ways. The eldest brother sought out a duel with a wizard with whom he had quarreled. Handily defeating and killing him with the power of the Elder wand, the eldest brother boasted of this wand taken from Death and his own invincibility. That night another wizard crept upon the eldest brother while he slept, stole the wand, and slit his throat for good measure. And so Death took the first brother.

The second brother returned to his own home, and taking the stone given to him by Death, turned it thrice in his hand. To his astonishment, the figure of a girl he had hoped to marry before her untimely death appeared before him. Yet she was not wholly alive and remained silent, cold, and distanced from her would be suitor. Driven mad with hopeless longing, he killed himself so as to truly be with her. And so Death took the second brother.

Although Death searched for the youngest brother for many years, he never succeeded and it was only when the third brother and reached a great age that he took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son. He then greeted Death as an old friend and they departed this life as equals."

" _That,_ my audience, is a true tale! I found out recently that Dumbledore had the wand, _this_ wand!" He brandished it for all the crowd to see. This is the wand that death himself created to be more powerful than any other wand in existence. By killing Dumbledore, she became its master, and by killing her, I am now in control over it!"

"So what?" asked Harry. "You've been unable to defeat me since I was a baby. What makes you think you can now? Because you've got a new wand? Give me a break."

The dark lord growled, then called out "Nagini, now!"

The snake flashed into the crowd, grabbing an order member. She screamed as she fell, clawing at the beast that was now moving past her and to a second member. Chaos ensued amongst the order members while laughter did in the ranks of the death eaters, until the sorting hat floated down from an open window above. One of the professors had been asked to stay inside. The hat had known he would be needed, and wished to fall when the time was right. Neville Longbottom grabbed the hat as it came towards him, not understanding why the hat was where he was. When he moved the hat so he could avoid injury to it, he felt the hilt of the sword that was in it. With a roar, he shoved past the few order members who were still trying to fight the beast off and protect the students and beheaded it. The dark lord screamed and started storming towards Neville, wand at the ready.

"She was the last one, you know." taunted Harry, walking forward. As the dark lord's followers were parting to let him through, Harry's friends were parting to allow him to do the same. The dark lord paused, looking confused, and, was it possible? Possibly a little bit concerned as well.

Harry walked forward, smiling. "The diary I killed in my second year. I didn't even know what it was, though Dumbledore figured it out. That was what gave him the idea to start researching them. He found the ring and destroyed it. One of your own followers, Regulus Black, turned traitor on you. He retrieved the locket, though he could not figure out how to destroy it. I did. Then I did the same thing to the diadem and the cup. The funny part? You made me into one yourself. That's where the connection to you came from. When we figured it out, we killed the one inside me too. That's why I didn't see any of those visions you were trying to send me. Now we have taken out Nagini. That makes seven. You are the last one. And I _will_ defeat you." He had been ticking off the numbers on his fingers as he talked, and he wiggled them at the dark lord in a mocking manner when he finished, a dark grin on his face.

"You cannot touch me!" the dark lord shrieked, his eyes wide. "I am the master of death with this wand!"

"The brother in the story who had the wand was that arrogant about it as well. You know how that ended for him."

Harry heard a grunt from behind him, and suddenly Neville shoved his way through the crowd. "No, Harry, you can't do it! He's mine! I am going to take him out!"

"Neville? What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"I enjoyed that. Killing that snake that was so beloved to him! He's responsible for my parents being locked away in St. Mungo's. He needs to suffer for that! You won't take my glory for this!"

Harry's eyes widened as Neville stalked towards him, looking dramatic as he hefted the Sword of Gryffindor. In a panic, and hearing the dark lord laugh about how even his followers were turning on him, causing a roar of laughter from the death eaters, he stunned his friend. "I'm sorry, Neville, I really am, but. . . someone help him!"

"Enough of this!" called the dark lord. "I will have you all dead, or as my marked followers by the end of the day. I am even willing, for that little show, to take in a few select muggleborns. If you can prove your worth to me that is. _Avada kedavra!"_

Harry spun to face him again and yelled " _expelliarmus!_ " in return. A jet of red light left his wand and collided with the streak of green that was shooting at him. The two spells created a backlash that shoved anyone within fifteen feet of them to the ground. The two wizards struggled for nearly a minute before the spell from the elder wand faltered and then, along with the disarming spell Harry had cast, shot back at the dark lord. He barely had time to notice and look surprised before both hit him, knocking him to the ground dead.

"It's over, everyone. For good this time. He has no more hidden ways to come back now. If any of you lot want to keep fighting, go ahead, anyone else, surrender now and I will ask that you have a fair trial, at the very least. That they try to dig up your actual crimes instead of punishing you for what everyone else was doing." Even as he spoke the words, Harry knew that there was almost no chance that any of the crowd had been able to become marked for information the way Headmaster Snape had been.

From the middle of the crowd, however, a figure which had fallen to the ground in grief when her lord had died stood up. "Murderer!" she shrieked. Bellatrix Lestrange was killed with the use of no lethal spells. Harry heard later that the combination of stunners, petrificus, and various jinxes had made her heart explode. Upon seeing the death of his lord, and his sister-in-law, Lucius Malfoy, third in command of the army of death eaters standing before Hogwarts turned to run leading most of the rest of the death eaters with him. A half dozen decided to fight, and were easily taken out. Most of the rest were stunned and captured when they hit the wards. A small handful fell prey to the various animals inside the forbidden forest. Rumour around campus had it that the centaurs and acromantulas, especially, were extremely happy the following year.

When all was said and done, Harry rushed to Neville to figure out what had happened. He found his friend sitting up and smiling, waving for him to come closer. At Harry's concerned look, Neville started to laugh, a healthy, happy laugh. "I took out Bulstrode a couple times this year. She was one of the biggest offenders in the school when they were using the cruciatus curse on the students, and she liked to target the first and second years because she was too much of a coward to try it on anyone else. I stunned her a couple times, disarmed her at least once, and petrified her another time. I figured if what He said was true, and you needed to take out the wand's owner to gain control over it, you had to take me out at that point. It's why the hat gave me the sword, too. He said I'd become the Gryffindor I was supposed to, since I was only assuming you'd stun me instead of something really dangerous. Glad to see that was right!"

Harry rushed forward and hugged his friend. "You had me going! I thought you'd lost it!"

Among the order members killed, Harry only knew Mundungus Fletcher, that one was not really a shame if he was thinking critically. Harry dealt with the funerals, the celebrations in his honour, and the general mood of the wizarding world with the help of his closest friends. In public, he played the part of the cool hero, while in private, he allowed his friends to help him regain his balance after yet another drastic shift in his life.

When Hogwarts re-opened, Harry, Draco, Hermione, and Ron all attended their seventh year for the first time. Quite a few students were new at the school, and a huge amount more attended a repeat of one of their years due to the lack of education the year before when the death eaters controlled the castle. Minerva McGonagall was headmistress, and since Severus Snape had been cleared of all charges against him in the end of the war, she told him he was either going to become her deputy headmaster, or find a new job.

When they graduated, Harry became the first Defence Against the Dark Arts professor to last more than a year since Tom Riddle had applied for the position. Draco took an apprenticeship with his godfather, working at the school, and then becoming a highly respected potions master who created dozens of potions that helped the wizarding world. Hermione went to work for the ministry, and championed for reform in how the wizarding world treated muggleborns, and to some extent half bloods. She also completely changed the way non-humans were treated, and gained full rights for werewolves. She did this with Draco and Professor Snape. They had finally gotten the wolfsbane potion to a point that it could circumvent everything but the change itself and the contagiousness of the disease. Even though they had been created as dark creatures, it turned out some of the basilisk parts were good for helpful potions along with the harmful ones. Ron, for his part, had seen too much seriousness, and when Zonko retired and sold his store, he became the wizard in charge of the Hogsmeade branch of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.

The first summer after they all graduated, Draco and Harry were married. It was a beautiful ceremony, with Headmistress McGonagall and Deputy Headmaster Snape both performing as officials. The two had a small group of friends, and could not have been happier for anything in the world.

Anyone who saw the pair, especially those who had known them since their first year of Hogwarts, were amazed at the transformation from enemies who should be on opposite sides of the war to husbands, but really, they all thought, Harry and Draco together? It was just fate.


End file.
